Department for Transport

Transport for the North

Louise Haigh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he (a) last spoke and (b) next plans to speak at the Transport for the North Board.

Andrew Stephenson: A senior official regularly attends the Transport for the North Board to represent the Department.

Transforming Cities Fund: South Tyneside

Mrs Emma Lewell-Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what South Tyneside Council's allocation of the Transforming Cities Funding was.

Trudy Harrison: As announced at Budget 2020, North East region will be receiving £198 million in capital grant funding to be paid over four years from 2019-20 to 2022-23. This builds on the £10m awarded for quick-win schemes in March 2019 as part of Tranche 1. The funding is for public transport improvements in the North East as outlined in their Strategic Outline Business Case.

Driving Tests: Jarrow

Kate Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what information his Department holds on what date the (a) ground lease and (b) any other leases are due to end at South Shields Driving Test Centre in the Jarrow constituency.

Kate Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much annual rent is paid by the DVSA for the South Shields Test Centre in the Jarrow constituency.

Kate Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an estimate of the average annual rent costs for DVSA test centres across the UK.

Kate Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will list the expired leases for (a) ground and  (b) building at South Shields Driving Test Centre in the Jarrow constituency over the last 10 years.

Kate Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much income from driving tests the DVSA South Shields Test Centre has received in each of the last five years.

Trudy Harrison: The ground lease at South Shields driving test centre (DTC) ends on 19/12/2119. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) does not pay annual rent for South Shields DTC, but it is responsible for all the annual running costs including maintenance. Many of the sites used by the DVSA deliver more than just the driving test service, and vary in size and capacity. The DVSA estimates the average annual rental of single purpose driving test sites is £16,400 per annum. There has only been one lease over the last 10 years, which is the current ground lease. The following data shows the income from driving tests at South Shields DTC over the last five years:2016 = £286,452.002017 = £297,113.002018 = £262,725.002019 = £282,882.002020 = £143,047.002021 = £219,279.00

Highway Code

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Government's approach to advertising and promoting changes that were made to the Highway Code in January 2022.

Trudy Harrison: The changes to The Highway Code will be communicated in two phases: - A factual awareness raising campaign that ran February to March, alerting road users to the changes as they came into effect.- A broader behaviour change campaign later in the year, to align with seasonal increases in active travel, to help embed the changes and encourage understanding and uptake of the new guidance. Across the campaign we will measure effectiveness by collating and monitoring: - Campaign metrics including reach and engagement.- Pre and post-campaign surveys to determine campaign awareness, understanding, attitudes and behaviours. The results from the first phase are in the process of being collated. We have seen high levels of engagement and strong stakeholder support for the changes.

Highway Code

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the impact of the changes to the Highway Code implemented in January 2022 on (a) motorists (b) cyclists and (c) pedestrians.

Trudy Harrison: The updates to the Highway Code made on 29 January 2022 were an extension to the existing advice and guidance. The amendments simply reinforce the good behaviours that we would expect every road user to adhere to and drivers should already be following the rules of the road. The changes will lead to improvements in road safety as they encourage more mutual respect and consideration for all road users.

Roads: Repairs and Maintenance

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance Survey (2022) which reports a 23 per cent increase in the backlog of carriageway repairs, what steps his Department is taking to tackle that backlog.

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, in reference to the Annual Local Authority Road Maintenance Survey, what assessment his Department has made of the estimate of the £12.64 billion needed to deal with carriageway repairs; and what estimate he has made of the timescale to deal with outstanding carriageway repairs.

Trudy Harrison: Local highway authorities have a duty under Section 41 of the Highways Act 1980 to maintain the highways network in their area. It is for each local authority to decide how best to do this.  Whilst the Government does not intervene in local highway maintenance decisions, we are providing over £2.7 billion funding for local highways maintenance for local authorities outside of London and City Region areas over the next three years. In an extremely challenging fiscal context following COVID-19, this settlement announced at Spending Review 2021 represents a funding level consistent with 2021/22 committed for three years. This will help local highway authorities plan effectively for managing their highways assets, from tackling potholes to repairing bridges and other asset defects across their local road networks. The Department for Transport encourages good practice in local highway maintenance for all local highway authorities and endorses the UK Roads Liaison Group’s Code of Practice on Well Managed Highway Infrastructure.

Railways: Finance

Andrew Bridgen: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress he has made on identifying projects suitable for the restoring your railways funding; and what his planned timetable is for providing an update on the submission made by the Campaign to reopen the Ivanhoe Line.

Wendy Morton: The £500m Restoring Your Railway Fund is supporting over 45 schemes at different stages of development with funding and advice. A Strategic Outline Business Case for the Ivanhoe Line bid was submitted to the Department in May 2021. The Secretary of State for Transport and I are considering next steps for projects, including the Ivanhoe Line, with a decision on the next tranche to progress anticipated later this year.

Public Transport: Social Workers

Nadia Whittome: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made an assessment of the (a) viability and (b) potential impact on staff retention of providing free public transport for social care workers.

Trudy Harrison: The statutory English National Concessionary Travel Scheme (ENCTS) provides free off-peak bus travel to those with eligible disabilities and those of state pension age, currently sixty-six. Local authorities in England also have the discretion to offer concessions over and above the statutory minimum, including to other groups of people such as social care workers. The implementation of such local schemes is a matter for individual authorities, based upon their assessment of local need and funding priorities, paying for them through local resources like Council Tax.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

P&O Ferries: Redundancy

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had discussions with his counterparts in (a) Cyprus, (b) the Bahamas and (c) Holland on the dismissal of workers on P&O vessels flagged in those jurisdictions.

Paul Scully: My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State has written to the Insolvency Service asking them to urgently undertake a thorough review into the actions of P&O Ferries. As part of this review they will review the evidence around what notifications were given to the various authorities where P&O ferry have said their vessels are flagged.

Bounce Back Loan Scheme: Fraud

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure lending banks follow up potentially fraudulent claims made through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, before claiming the state guarantee.

Paul Scully: The British Business Bank manages the Bounce Back Loan Scheme on behalf of the Government. However, lenders are responsible for managing the direct relationship with borrowers. The Bank challenges lenders on discrepancies and ensures lenders are abiding by the scheme rules through its guarantee assurance and audit programmes. Where issues are identified through the Audit Assurance Programme, the Bank can take remedial action including the cancellation of a guarantee.

Bounce Back Loan Scheme

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many and what proportion of loans claimed through the Bounce Back Loans scheme were duplicates; and what the total value was of all duplicate loans.

Paul Scully: To date, the British Business Bank has identified 22,900 Bounce Back Loan Scheme facilities which it suspects could be involved in a case of duplicate loans. This figure includes both original facilities and potential duplicates. The Bank is currently working with lenders to investigate these facilities and determine which are ineligible loans under the scheme rules.

Retail Trade and Small Businesses: Disposable Income

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the impact of real household disposable incomes per person will fall by 2.2 per cent in 2022-23 on (a) small businesses and (b) high streets.

Paul Scully: The Government is providing a range of support to help with the cost of living. As announced on 23 March, the Government is cutting fuel duty for 12 months, raising the Employment Allowance to £5,000, doubling the Household Support Fund with an extra £500m, zero-rating VAT on energy-saving materials, and equalising National Insurance and Income Tax starting thresholds from July 2022 so people will be able to earn £12,570 a year without paying any Income Tax or National Insurance. This builds on existing support, including business rates relief worth £7 billion over five years and the package of support announced on 3 February to help households with rising energy bills worth £9.1 billion in 2022-23. The Government’s Plan for Jobs is also helping people into work and giving them the skills they need to progress – the best approach to managing the cost of living in the long term.

Adoption Leave: Self-employed

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reason his policies permit employed adoptive parents entitlement to statutory adoption leave but not self-employed adoptive parents.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his policy to include a consultation for self-employed people as part of any new legislation on statutory adoption pay.

Paul Scully: The Government has focused on supporting employed parents to take time off work to care for and bond with their adopted child because they have less flexibility with their work than self-employed parents. However local authorities can provide a discretionary payment equivalent to Maternity Allowance to self-employed adopters. This payment is discretionary and means-tested to ensure that resources are targeted at those adopters who need it most, as part of a package of post-adoption support.

Food: Delivery Services

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to introduce a cap on fees charged by third-party food delivery apps to restaurants.

Paul Scully: The Government currently has no plans to introduce a cap on fees charged by third-party food delivery apps to restaurants.

P&O Ferries: Dubai

Layla Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what representations the Government has made to the Dubai authorities regarding DP World and P&O Ferries.

Paul Scully: We have been absolutely clear with the CEO of P&O Ferries that the decisions that the company has taken are absolutely catastrophic for its reputation. We have said the same thing to DP World.

Energy: Prices

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment has he made of the adequacy of the existing energy price cap in incentivising households to increase electrification for heating.

Greg Hands: The price cap is a temporary measure until competition in the market improves and ensures domestic consumers on default tariffs pay a fair price for their energy. It is designed to tackle the loyalty penalty, where disengaged consumers are overcharged for their energy. It is not the objective of the price cap to incentivise choices in particular heating options.

Energy: Prices

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what comparative assessment he has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) equity of the existing price cap scheme for electricity-only consumers relative to dual-fuel users.

Greg Hands: The methodology and calculation of the price cap is a matter for Ofgem.

Geothermal Power

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of geothermal energy plants to meeting COP26 commitments by 2030.

Greg Hands: The Government recognises the potential role of geothermal energy in contributing to the UK’s 2030 COP26 commitments, particularly in the decarbonisation of heat. The potential for geothermal power plants is more limited in the UK than in countries with higher temperature resource. The recently published Heat and Buildings Strategy acknowledges the potential of geothermal energy and sets out the Government’s commitment to continue to monitor developments in geothermal heat in the UK and assess whether the technology provides a cost-effective option for the future.

Energy: Conservation

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to include mandatory energy efficiency requirements in building regulations to reduce (a) energy costs and (b) fuel poverty.

Greg Hands: When implemented in 2025, the Future Homes Standard and Future Buildings Standard will ensure new buildings are zero carbon ready, with high energy efficiency and low carbon heat. The Government believes that by improving energy efficiency and moving to cleaner sources of heat, carbon emissions can be reduced and energy costs kept down for consumers now and in the future. Reducing energy demand through energy efficiency can directly address fuel poverty by minimising energy costs for consumers. In the Heat and Buildings Strategy the Government set out how it is prioritising the most vulnerable in society. The Government is targeting support for those in fuel poverty through several schemes, such as: the Local Authority Delivery Scheme, Home Upgrade Grant and Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, totalling a record level of investment of £6.6 billion. This is in line with the Government’s target to ensure, where practical, that as many fuel poor households achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating of a Band C by 2030.

Research: Russia

Matt Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the impact of the war in Ukraine on research collaboration with Russian institutions.

George Freeman: The Government has announced that it will not support any new publicly funded research collaborations with Russia. Existing research projects with Russian involvement are paused. I have commissioned an assessment, on top of the existing and strong due diligence processes of UK public research funders, to isolate and freeze activities which benefit the Russian regime. The Government is also funding a £3 million package of support for Ukrainian researchers at risk.

Council Housing and Housing Associations: Insulation

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what additional steps he is taking to help (a) local councils and (b) housing associations with improvement works to insulation on aging housing to help tackle the rising cost of energy.

Greg Hands: The Local Authority Delivery scheme and the first phase of the Home Upgrade Grant have allocated over £1billion in funding to local authorities across England since 2020 to install energy efficiency measures, including insulation, to low-income households on and off the gas grid. Over £850 million additional funding is available to the Home Upgrade Grant over the next 3 years. The £3.8 billion Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund is being delivered over a 10-year period to improve the energy performance of social rented homes.

Gas-cooled Reactors: Construction

Sir Robert Goodwill: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many High-Temperature Gas Reactors his Department plans to construct in the UK.

Greg Hands: The Department’s Advanced Nuclear Fund includes funding for an Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) Research, Development & Demonstration (RD&D) Programme to enable a High Temperature Gas Reactor (HTGR) demonstration by the early 2030s to understand the potential of the technology and its contribution to achieving the UK’s Net Zero target. The Government has published a stakeholder engagement note which sets out a proposed three phase approach for the programme. This approach will develop the evidence base to inform future policy.

Wind Power: Seas and Oceans

Matt Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of off-shore wind to the security of the UK’s energy supply.

Greg Hands: Offshore wind will play a key role in helping the UK decarbonise its power system by 2035, achieving net zero and providing secure, domestically generated energy. The UK currently has 11GW installed, generating enough electricity to power every home in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland twice over, with a further 8.5GW in construction. The Government has an ambitious target of 40GW by 2030 including 1GW of floating wind. The Government also anticipates further rapid expansion of both fixed and floating offshore wind through the 2030s and beyond. The Government will publish a British Energy Security Strategy shortly, which will set out how the UK will become more self-sufficient and reduce reliance on imported oil and gas.

Fossil Fuels: Russia

Matt Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the impact of sanctions on Russia on Government plans to phase out use of hydrocarbons imported from Russia in the UK’s energy supply.

Greg Hands: On 8th March, the Government announced a plan to phase out the import of Russian oil products by the end of the year. Phasing this out by the end of the year gives enough time to adjust supply chains. More than two thirds of all road fuel comes from domestic production here in the UK and Russia produces just a fraction of the oil imported into the UK.

Renewable Energy: Investment

Matt Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the effect of trends in the level of investment in renewables on reducing household energy bills.

Greg Hands: The Government has seen the cost of renewable technologies reduce, most notably offshore wind. As more renewable energy is added to the system, household electricity bills will be less affected by fluctuations in volatile global gas prices.

Natural Gas and Oil: Russia

Matt Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to reduce reliance on Russian oil and gas.

Greg Hands: The UK is a significant producer of both crude oil and petroleum products. Unlike other countries in Europe, the UK is not dependent on Russian gas supply. The UK is able to meet the vast majority of supply through domestic production and reliable imports from Norway. Less than 4% of British gas consumption comes from Russia. Energy security is an absolute priority for this Government. My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy regularly discusses this with G7 and EU partners. The current volatility in global oil and gas prices only underscores the importance of building strong, home-grown renewables sectors and reducing reliance on fossil fuels, including Russian hydrocarbons.

Energy Supply

Matt Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the contribution of North Sea oil and gas to energy security.

Greg Hands: The Government is committed to the UK offshore oil and gas sector, which continues to keep people warm, fuel their cars and strengthen the country’s energy security.UK-produced gas met nearly half of the UK’s domestic gas consumption in 2020. The North Sea Transition Deal recognises the important role that gas will play as the UK economy transitions from one based on fossil fuels towards one based on clean energy.

Ofgem

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Strategy and Policy Statement to Ofgem, outlined in the Energy White Paper, will encourage proactive grid investment to support renewable energy development.

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment the Government has made of the potential effect of the Strategy and Policy Statement to Ofgem on levels of investment in renewable energy development.

Greg Hands: The Strategy and Policy Statement is intended to give a strategic steer to the regulator on the Government’s priorities in relation to the statutory objectives of Ofgem, including protecting consumers and achieving net zero. Allowing strategic investment to ensure the grid is prepared to support renewable energy and low carbon technologies, and investment in those technologies, is within scope of these objectives.

Ofgem

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when the Government plans to publish the Strategy and Policy Statement to Ofgem, as outlined in the Energy White Paper.

Greg Hands: The Government plans to launch a public consultation on the Strategy and Policy Statement for Ofgem later this year.

Heating: Regulation

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has plans for the regulation of district heating networks regarding the energy price cap.

Greg Hands: The Government has committed to legislating within this parliament to regulate the district heating sector. In December 2021 the Government announced that Ofgem will take on the role of regulator for heat networks, which will give it new powers to regulate prices in this sector as a matter of priority. This will enable domestic heat network customers to receive equivalent protection to other energy customers as well as ensuring heat network operators are securing good deals for their consumers. This will mean that consumers are charged a fair rate for heating whilst encouraging investment in heat networks.

Electricity Generation: Costs

Mr Steve Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to his Department's response to FOI2021/05245, if he will publish his Department's final versions of the following files relating to calculations of the levelised cost of electricity generation (a) Solar Methodology.xlsx, (b) Onshore Methodology.xlsx, (c) Offshore Methodology.xlsx, (d) Generation Costs Summer Updates 2019 PR.pptx, (e) Offshore Wind Summer 2019 Update.docx, (f) Onshore Update Summer 2019.docx, (g) Solar Update Summer 2019.docx and (h) [OFFSEN] Electricity Generation Costs 2019.

Greg Hands: The Department is not intending to publish these documents as they are draft, working documents that do not reflect the final “Electricity Generation Costs Report 2020”[1] which has been published online. As such they have been withheld under Environmental Information Regulation 12(4)(d). [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beis-electricity-generation-costs-2020

Small Modular Reactors

Sir Robert Goodwill: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of deploying small and advanced modular reactors on existing nuclear sites.

Greg Hands: The Government recognises that there are areas across the UK with experience hosting nuclear developments and appreciates the potential benefits that these locations could offer to new nuclear projects. The Government is developing a siting strategy, and a new National Policy Statement for nuclear electricity generation infrastructure deployable after 2025. The Government will consult on the strategy in due course. The Government remains open to considering development proposals for projects at sites which stakeholders consider suitable, including existing nuclear sites. Any future project would be subject to planning and development consents.

Nuclear Reactors

Sir Robert Goodwill: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the proportion of (a) large nuclear reactors and (b) small and advanced modular reactors that the UK requires.

Greg Hands: Nuclear power generated in the UK plays a critical role in the UK energy system. Hinkley Point C is under construction and, when operational, will supply 3.2GW of secure, low carbon electricity for around 60 years, providing enough power for around 6 million homes. The Government aims to bring at least one large-scale nuclear project to the point of Final Investment Decision(FID) by the end of this Parliament, subject to value for money and all relevant approvals. Small and Advanced Modular Reactors (SMRs/AMRs) could play a significant role alongside large nuclear as a low-carbon energy source to support a secure, affordable decarbonised energy system. In order to support this, the Government has announced up to £120 million for a new Future Nuclear Enabling Fund (FNEF) to provide targeted support to address barriers to entry. The Government will publish a roadmap for new nuclear deployment, including large scale and advanced nuclear technologies, in 2022.

Manufacturing Industries: Investment

Matt Vickers: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to support investment in UK manufacturing.

Lee Rowley: The UK is one of the largest manufacturing nations, ranked 9th globally by output, and manufacturing contributed £173 billion of GVA to the UK economy in 2020. The sector plays a vital role in the UK economy through innovating (accounting for 61% of all business expenditure for UK research and development), exports (46% of total UK exports) and job creation (supporting 2.6 million jobs). As such, the Government recognises the importance of UK manufacturing and is committed to its continued development as a strong, vibrant and diverse sector. Although decisions about investments and job creation are ultimately a matter for individual private enterprise, the Government is providing funding for strategically important manufacturing subsectors through the Global Britain Investment Fund: leveraging billions across the renewables supply chain; backing Britain’s automotive sector through new Gigafactories; and onshoring new offshore wind manufacturing to the UK. Furthermore, we continue to focus on improving the long-term competitiveness and productivity of manufacturing by investing in research & development, skills and support for digital technology through initiatives such as Made Smarter, Help to Grow and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. In addition, the Government is encouraging companies to invest in productivity-enhancing plant and machinery. Manufacturing businesses can benefit from the super-deduction, which allows companies to claim 130% capital allowances on qualifying plant and machinery investments, as well as the extension to the Annual Investment Allowance to 31 March 2023 at its higher level of £1 million.

Iron and Steel: Carbon Emissions

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many successful bids from the steel sector there have been as part of the Net Zero Innovation Plan.

Lee Rowley: I assume that the Hon. Member is referring to the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, which remains open, where there have been two successful bids from the steel sector so far.

Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of further extending the deadline for completed applications to the Renewable Heat Initiative beyond 31 March 2022 in the context of supply chain issues delaying installation of heat pumps.

Greg Hands: The domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) has already been extended once and will now close on 31 March 2022. The legislation closing the RHI is now in force and there are no plans to repeal it. Heat pump installations that are not completed in time to apply to the RHI should be eligible for the grant scheme that is replacing the RHI, the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, provided they meet the relevant eligibility criteria, and are commissioned on or after 1 April 2022.

Energy: Prices

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an assessment of the impact of green levies on the cost of energy to consumers.

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent assessment his Department has made of the (a) continuing need for green levies on energy bills and (b) the financial impact of green levies on consumers.

Greg Hands: According to Ofgem, environmental and social policy costs have totalled 25.48 percent on electricity bills and 2.46 percent on gas bills in 2020. However, over the past 10 years their net effect has been to reduce consumer energy bills. These levies fund vital support schemes and energy efficiency measures which benefit low income and vulnerable households, as well as investing in the UK’s home-grown renewable energy sector.

Wind Power

Mr Jonathan Lord: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of off-shore wind to increasing the security of the UK’s energy supply.

Greg Hands: Offshore wind will play a key role in helping the UK decarbonise its power system by 2035, achieving net zero and providing secure, domestically generated energy. The UK currently has 11GW installed, generating enough electricity to power every home in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland twice over, with a further 8.5GW in construction. The Government has an ambitious target of 40GW by 2030 including 1GW of floating wind. The Government also anticipates further rapid expansion of both fixed and floating offshore wind through the 2030s and beyond. The Government will publish a British Energy Security Strategy shortly, which will set out how the UK will become more self-sufficient and reduce reliance on imported oil and gas.

Northern Ireland Office

Schools: Northern Ireland

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent progress has been made on the establishment of a connected classroom programme for young people in Northern Ireland.

Conor Burns: We are firmly committed to establishing a Connected Classrooms programme, to provide young people in Northern Ireland with the opportunity to connect, engage and collaborate with their peers across the United Kingdom. We are currently exploring options for the delivery of this programme.

Castlereagh Foundation

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will publish the next steps of the Castlereagh Foundation in response to the written advice of the Advisory Committee.

Conor Burns: The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is continuing to consider all the advice that he has received to date regarding the Castlereagh Foundation.

Department of Health and Social Care

Hospitals: Morecambe

David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust has submitted plans for a new single site hospital to his Department.

Edward Argar: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Defibrillators

Dean Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to mandate the location of defibrillators in all buildings and infrastructure managed by the Government.

Maria Caulfield: The Department has no plans to do so. It is a matter for other Government departments to determine the location of defibrillators on their estate.

Mental Health Services: Children and Young People

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on ensuring that all children and young people have timely access to appropriate mental health interventions, since the publication of the Health and Social Care select committee's report, Children and Young People's Mental Health, HC 17, on 9 December 2021.

Gillian Keegan: In 2021, NHS England and NHS Improvement consulted on five waiting time standards, including four for children and young people. These are as follows: - For an ‘urgent’ referral to a community based mental health crisis service, a patient should be seen within 24 hours from referral, across all ages;- For a ‘very urgent’ referral to a community based mental health crisis service, a patient should be seen within four hours from referral, for all age groups;- Patients referred from accident and emergency should be seen face-to-face within one hour, by mental health liaison or children and young people‘s equivalent service; and- Children, young people and their families/carers presenting to community-based mental health services, should start to receive care within four weeks from referral. The consultation response was published on 22 February 2022. We are working with NHS England and NHS Improvement on the next steps for the proposed mental health access and waiting measures.

Veterans: Social Services

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the new social care data framework will identify veterans and their families accessing social care services.

Gillian Keegan: We have no plans to do so. Data on an individual’s prior employment status within social care records is not routinely collected and veterans receive the same access to social care services as non-veterans.

Veterans: Social Services

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the changes to financial assessments for social care support in England will disregard military compensation awarded for illness and injury caused by Service.

Gillian Keegan: The Care and Support (Charging and Assessment of Resources) Regulations 2014 allow certain income or capital lump sum payments to be disregarded from a means test. It requires any guaranteed income payments made under the Armed Forces and Reserve Forces (Compensation Scheme) Order 2011 for injury caused by service on or after 6 April 2005 to be disregarded. This will not be affected by the forthcoming social care charging reforms.

Social Services: Costs

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to liaise with the social care sector on the formulation of the Government’s fair cost for care calculation outlined in the Government’s People at the Heart of Care White Paper.

Gillian Keegan: In December 2021, we announced the £1.4 billion Market Sustainability and Fair Cost of Care Fund. This funding is being provided over three years to support local authorities to move towards paying providers a fair cost of care. In January 2022, we published the Social Care Charging Reform impact assessment. This presented a range of estimates for the cost of implementing a fair cost of care. This is a consultation stage impact assessment and the Department is in the process of engaging with stakeholders to refine the evidence and analysis.We have been working with the social care sector to produce guidance on the implementation of the Fund which will be published shortly. This will set out that, while local authorities are responsible for determining fee rates they pay providers, they will be required to conduct cost of care exercises and set out their plans for driving market sustainability, including progress towards a fair cost of care.

Low Alcohol Drinks: Children

Peter Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to recent research on the marketing and consumption of no and low alcohol drinks in the UK published by the Institute of Alcohol Studies, what assessment he has made of the potential risk posed by the marketing strategies of those products in exposing children to alcohol brands.

Peter Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to recent research on the marketing and consumption of no and low alcohol drinks in the UK published by the Institute of Alcohol Studies, whether his Department has plans to restrict the ways and contexts in which those products can be promoted.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to research on the marketing of no and low alcohol drinks in the UK published by the Institute of Alcohol Studies, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of alcohol producers using those products to strengthen their brands.

Gillian Keegan: The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regulates the advertising of alcohol products through the Committee of Advertising Practice and Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice Codes. The rules within these Codes apply to advertisements featuring or referring to alcoholic drinks containing more than 0.5% alcohol by volume. The rules also apply to advertisements, while not specifically for alcoholic drinks, which have the effect of promoting them, such as soft drinks advertised as mixers. The ASA is currently consulting on new rules and guidance to regulate the advertising of alcohol alternative products. It will consider how these products should be marketed responsibly, including safeguarding people under the age of 18 years old and how such marketing intersects with current alcoholic products regulation. The consultation is open until 5 May 2022.

Care Homes: Coronavirus

Sir Desmond Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether care home staff who were dismissed for failure to receive covid-19 vaccinations may now be re-employed in care homes.

Gillian Keegan: Regulations making vaccination a condition of deployment in care homes were in force between 11 November 2021 and 14 March 2022. During that period, care homes were legally required to only deploy vaccinated or exempt staff. The matter of re-hiring staff who have been dismissed or resigned as a result of the regulations is a matter for individual employers.

Blood Cancer: Coronavirus

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve outcomes for blood cancer patients in the context of the covid-19 induced (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment backlogs.

Maria Caulfield: To support the recovery of elective services, we are allocating more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund made available to systems in 2021/22 to increase elective activity. We will address outcomes for patients, including those with blood cancer, through the delivery of nine million additional treatments and diagnostic procedures over the next three years and approximately 30% more elective activity by 2024/25 than pre-pandemic levels.

Blood Cancer

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the needs of blood cancer patients are taken into account in the 10-Year Cancer Plan.

Maria Caulfield: The current call for evidence will inform the development of the 10 Year Cancer Plan and ensure the needs of all cancer patients, including those with blood cancer, are considered.

Blood Cancer

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve knowledge of blood cancer symptoms among GPs.

Maria Caulfield: General practitioners (GPs) are responsible for ensuring their clinical knowledge remains updated and identifying learning needs as part of their continuing professional development. This should include taking account of new research and developments in guidance, such as guidance from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, to ensure they can continue to provide high quality care to all patients.Primary Care Networks are working with GP practices to implement the 2021/22 early cancer diagnosis service, to optimise suspected cancer referral practice, support earlier diagnosis of cancer and identify people before their cancer has progressed.

Mental Health Services: Children and Young People

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department holds evidence of how CAMHS services in each local authority are prioritising the mental health needs of young people who are (a) on a child protection plan, (b) in the care system and (c) care leavers under 18; and what recent estimate he has made of the average waiting time for those known to social services to receive mental health support.

Gillian Keegan: The information requested is not held centrally. Local commissioners and mental health providers are expected to consider the needs of children and young people in the local population in planning and service delivery, including those on a child protection plan, in the care system and care leavers.No specific estimate has been made of the average waiting times for those known to social services to receive mental health support. A national access and waiting times standard for child and adolescent mental health services has not yet been defined.

Carers: Armed Forces

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Adult Social Care Reform White Paper, published in December 2021, whether the support needs of unpaid carers in the Armed Forces community will be included as part of the allocation of £25 million in funding to support unpaid carers.

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether carers from the ex-Service community will be recognised in guidance accompanying the new obligation for Integrated Care Boards to involve carers when commissioning care.

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of young carers from Armed Forces families.

Gillian Keegan: The Health and Care Bill references the term ‘carer’ to include all groups of carers who provide care, unpaid, for a friend or family member who has needs, such as unpaid carers in the armed forces community. Guidance is being prepared for integrated care boards on the duties relating to public and carer involvement. We expect this guidance to be issued in the summer subject to the passage of the Bill.The funding announced will assist commissioners and service providers in projects to understand the support required for those with different caring circumstances, acknowledging the wide variety in experience and need among carers. The Department does not hold statistics on young carers. However, the 2021 Census in England and Wales asked respondents whether they had previously served in the United Kingdom Armed Forces. We will consider this data as part of future policy development.

Mental Health Services: Children in Care

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the finding of the study by the University of Bristol, Mental health of children and young people in state care in England, that one in five children in care self-harmed during the covid-19 outbreak, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of mental health provision for young people in care; and what steps he is taking to ensure that young people in care are given appropriate support for their specific needs.

Gillian Keegan: No specific assessment has been made. Information on access to mental health services for children and young people by child protection plan status, looked after status or care leaver status is not held centrally. We expect local commissioners and providers to consider the mental health needs of children and young people in the area, including those in care, in planning and service delivery.We are working with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and NHS England and NHS Improvement to support local areas to deliver multi-agency suicide prevention plans, including initiatives to prevent self-harm in at-risk populations. The Department for Education invested over £1 million to pilot new approaches to mental health assessments for children entering care, which ended in March 2021. The pilots will be used to inform support for the mental health of looked-after children.

Dementia: Research

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much he has committed to spend on dementia research this year; and what steps his Department is taking to increase spending on dementia research.

Gillian Keegan: The Government has committed to invest £375 million in neurodegenerative disease research over the next five years to fund projects into a range of diseases, including dementia. The usual practice of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics. The NIHR and UK Research and Innovation rely on researchers submitting high-quality applications to access funding, therefore details of allocations in specific years are not currently available.We will set out our ambitions for dementia research in the forthcoming dementia strategy. The strategy will set out our future plans for dementia in England and will be published later this year.

Care Homes: Visits

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to consult (a) care home residents and (b) the loved ones of care home residents on the removal of free lateral flow device testing for care home visitors from 1 April 2022.

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with organisations representing older people who draw on social care regarding the implications of removing free lateral flow device testing for care home visitors.

Gillian Keegan: The Department regularly meets with stakeholders representing residents, their families, and providers of care and senior sector representatives to discuss issues in adult social care. We will keep the impact of testing policies on individuals receiving care, those who care for them and their loved ones under review.

Attorney General

P&O Ferries: Dismissal

Louise Haigh: To ask the Attorney General, whether the Secretary of State for Transport has requested her advice on the legality of the dismissals by P&O Ferries in March 2022.

Alex Chalk: By convention, whether the Law Officers have been asked to provide advice, and the contents of any such advice, is not disclosed outside Government. The Convention protects the Law Officers’ ability as chief legal advisers to the Government to give full and frank legal advice, and provides the fullest guarantee that government business will be conducted at all times in light of thorough and candid legal advice.

Department for Education

Schools: Non-domestic Rates

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will reconsider state schools having to pay full business rates compared to the 20 percent business rates that independent schools pay as a result of their charitable status.

Mr Robin Walker: Local authorities receive funding for business rates through the national funding formula, to meet the full costs of schools’ business rates. This means the costs for local authority-maintained schools’ and academies’ business rates are currently covered by the department and there is no disadvantage to state-funded schools from paying full rates, or advantage from receiving rates relief. The department will pay business rates bills directly to 122 billing authorities on behalf of more than half of local authority maintained schools and academies from April 2022.Business rates are charged on most non-domestic properties, including schools. Currently, 80% mandatory rates relief is applied to academies, voluntary-aided schools and foundation schools. The majority of special schools also receive full relief because they make provision for children with a disability. In addition, under the Local Government Finance Act 1988, local authorities are permitted to grant relief against the business rate liability to certain charitable and non-profit organisations. Local authorities are able to offer discretionary relief for local authority-maintained schools in their area.

Schools: Coronavirus

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of increased covid-19 related school absences on pupils' learning in (a) England, (b) Cheshire West and Chester and (c) Halton; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce transmission of that virus in schools.

Mr Robin Walker: The latest attendance data shows that, nationally, pupil absence in state-funded schools related to COVID-19 was 2.5% on 17 March 2022, up from 0.7% on 3 March 2022. Attendance was 89.7% on 17 March, down from 92.2% on 3 March.COVID-19 related absence is down from 3.9% on 3 February, and attendance is up from 87.8% on 3 February.The department no longer publishes data at constituency level and therefore cannot make an assessment of the impact of absences in Cheshire West and Chester, or Halton.In relation to the impact of absence related to COVID-19 on children’s education, research shows that any absence from school negatively impacts education, well-being and development. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, is clear that it is a high priority to bring children who have been absent back into school so that they can access the £5 billion recovery funding which has been designed to support children to regain what they have lost through the COVID-19 pandemic.In addition, the department is working urgently with practice leaders across school, local authorities, the police, the health and social care sectors and charity sector in an Attendance Alliance to urgently identify ways to improve school attendance. Further details about that work can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/attendance-alliance-group.The department is also in the process of reviewing the school attendance system as a whole. We have recently consulted on proposals aimed at transforming the consistency and quality of attendance support for families across England.In relation to the measures the department is taking at national level to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in schools, these include a large vaccination programme for children, the provision of CO2 monitors backed by £25 million in government funding, funding for ventilation solutions where ventilation in classrooms is poor, and the promotion of good hand hygiene.Additionally, individual schools should have in place emergency plans outlining how they would operate to minimise disruption to face-to-face education and protect the most vulnerable in the event of an outbreak of infection. The current guidance for schools is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/actions-for-schools-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak.

Students: Drugs

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of polices on reducing drug use on university campuses.

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his Department's position is in response to the recommendations of the Higher Education Policy Institute's recent report entitled Illicit drug use in universities: zero tolerance or harm reduction?, published on 3 March 2022, which calls on the education sector to drop the zero tolerance approach to illicit drug use for personal users.

Michelle Donelan: This government strongly supports activity by universities and other partners to raise awareness of the harms of illicit drugs and to discourage drug misuse by young people. Illicit drugs are harmful and there is no safe way to take them.As independent and autonomous institutions, higher education providers are responsible for their own policies in relation to illegal drugs.Universities UK has set up a taskforce to help universities understand and address drug-use. The first meeting of the taskforce takes place this month and it will look to set out a common approach to reduce harms from drug use and to better tackle supply.Its work will include production of evidence-led sector guidance, developed with students, staff and wider stakeholders, including recommendations based on harm reduction. The taskforce will also look to better understand supply of, demand for, and use of drugs in the UK student population, as well as make student drug use visible as a welfare and health issue.The government’s 10-year drugs plan was published in December 2021 and is a formal, substantive response to the independent review of drugs led by Dame Carol Black. The plan includes an aim to drive behaviour change to reduce the demand for drugs, and commits to further research and testing messaging through an evidence-based, targeted behaviour change initiative, initially aimed at students in further and higher education.The UK student-led charity Students Organising for Sustainability launched the Drug and Alcohol Impact programme in October 2020. University and students’ union partnerships were invited to sign up to a 2-year commitment to obtain accreditation under the scheme. This required achieving levels of practice in areas including knowledge and understanding of student drug use, collaboration with key stakeholders, policy changes, and harm reduction interventions.The programme was successfully piloted with four partnerships, with two more joining in the 2021/22 academic year. It is now being scaled up.

Teachers: Re-employment

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to his Answer of 22 March 2022 to Question 141972, what steps he has taken to ensure that his Department learns lessons from the initial call for volunteers to re-enter the teaching profession; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Robin Walker: The department is extremely grateful to all the teachers who responded to the campaign. Each one is making a difference to the education of the pupils they are teaching and makes a valuable contribution to our aim of maintaining face-to-face education in schools.As a result of this campaign, the department has further improved our engagement with the supply sector and we maintain regular contact with a wide range of stakeholders including trade unions, supply agencies and trade bodies, to monitor the supply market.

Cost of Living: Students

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what fiscal steps he plans to take to support university and college students in the context of the the rise in cost of living.

Michelle Donelan: We are freezing maximum tuition fees for the 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years. By the 2024/25 academic year, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years.Students from the lowest-income households have access to the largest ever amounts of support for their living costs in cash terms. Maximum grants and loans for living costs were increased by 3.1% this academic year, and we have announced that they will increase by a further 2.3% next year.Many providers have hardship funds that students can apply to for assistance should individuals’ finances be affected in academic year 2021/22.Grant funding to the Office for Students (OfS) for the 2021/22 financial year included an allocation of £5 million to higher education providers in England in order to provide additional support for student hardship.In our guidance to the OfS on funding for the 2021/22 financial year we made clear that the OfS should protect the £256 million allocation for the student premiums to support disadvantaged students and those that need additional help.Advice is available from providers and from other sources online to help students manage their money while they are attending their courses.

Teachers: Re-employment

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2022 to Question 141972 on Teachers: Re-employment, what provisions are included in his Department's contracts to ensure that he is (a) informed on progress of ministerial and departmental initiatives and (b) able to oversee operational delivery.

Mr Robin Walker: Supply agencies are independent private organisations and were not directly contracted by the department for the campaign. As a result, they were not required to provide performance data in relation to this campaign.As part of our engagement with the supply sector we have maintained regular contact with a wide range of stakeholders including trade unions, supply agencies and trade bodies, to monitor the supply market.

Children: Body Searches

Ms Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to introduce a legal requirement for schools to inform the parents or guardians of children before a police officer initiates a strip search or intimate search of a child.

Mr Robin Walker: The department is clear that any use of strip searching must be carried out in accordance with the law and with full regard for the dignity and welfare of the individual being searched, particularly if the individual being searched is a child.The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) Code C, Annex A, paragraph 11 (c) is clear in stating that an ‘appropriate adult’ must be present in circumstances where a child is to be strip searched. Code C, paragraph 1.7 (a) (i) of the act is equally clear that in the case of a juvenile, an ‘appropriate adult’ means the parent or guardian of the child in the first instance. Other options are available if attendance by the parent or guardian is not possible.The department is urgently reviewing the ‘searching, screening and confiscation at school’ guidance. This will include consideration of when it is appropriate to inform parents before a search takes place. The review is taking place alongside the ongoing consultation on the ‘behaviour in schools’ guidance. The department will decide its next steps based on the results of this review and the consultation.

Free Schools: Havering

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps his Department has taken to help establish new free schools in Havering Borough.

Mr Robin Walker: The free schools programme remains an important part of this government’s plan to level up standards and respond where there is need for more school places. The programme has delivered hundreds of new schools and provided thousands of good school places across the country. This includes the Concordia Academy in my hon. Friend’s constituency, which Ofsted have rated ‘Outstanding’.Alongside Concordia Academy, the London Borough of Havering has a further open free school, Drapers’ Maryland Primary School, which is Ofsted rated ‘Good’. At present there are a further four free schools that have been approved to open in Havering. These are Havering Special School, Harris Rainham Sixth Form, Emmanuel Community School, and Unity Romford Primary School. There have been some challenges to the progression of these projects, but the department is confident that all four free schools will open over the coming years. The department is working hard, in collaboration with the local authority, to deliver the schools as quickly as possible to ensure that we continue to raise educational standards for pupils in Havering.The department will set out plans in due course for approving further mainstream free schools, where there is the greatest need for new school places, prioritising proposals in Education Investment Areas.

Free School Meals: Migrants

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children from families with no recourse to public funds are currently receiving means-tested free school meals as a result of the temporary extension to those children in (a) England and (b) the North East.

Will Quince: The department will be extending free school meal (FSM) eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds (NRPF). More information on this can be found in written statement HCWS714, available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-03-24/hcws714. Information on the number of children who received a free meal, and attracted pupil premium funding under the temporary extension of FSM eligibility to some NRPF households in the 2021/22 financial year can be found in the third document here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-allocations-and-conditions-of-grant-2021-to-2022.

Pupils: Disadvantaged

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Child Poverty Action Group’s estimate that 900,000 children living below the poverty line in England do not qualify for free school meals under the current eligibility criteria, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of his Department’s definition of disadvantaged pupils; and if he will make a statement.

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason his Department does not use data held by the Department for Work and Pensions to automatically register all pupils eligible for means-tested free school meals; and if he will make a statement.

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of experiencing (a) very low food security and (b) low food security, as defined by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on educational attainment; and if he will make a statement.

Will Quince: Under benefits-related criteria, the department provide a free healthy meal to around 1.7 million children, ensuring they are well nourished, and can concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom.Under this government, eligibility for free school meals has been extended several times, including through the introduction of universal infant free school meals, and further education free school meals.The department are permanently extending free school meal eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds. This will come into effect for the start of the summer term.Whilst take-up of free school meals is strong, we want to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming their free school meals, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.To support this, the department provides an eligibility checking system to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities. The department have also developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for free school meals and provide guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including free school meals. We continue to explore ways that the verification process can be improved.As announced in the Spring Statement, the government is continuing to provide targeted cost of living support for households most in need. From April 2022, the government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1 billion.

Children and Young People: Visual Impairment

Holly Mumby-Croft: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of creating a universal model pathway for children and young people with visual impairments who are seeking support.

Will Quince: The department is firmly committed to ensuring that children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with visual impairments, receive the support they need to achieve in their early years, at school and college.We recognise that children with visual impairments have specific needs and, therefore, it is a legal requirement for qualified teachers of classes of pupils who have sensory impairments, to hold the relevant mandatory qualification (MQSI). Providers must be approved by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, to offer these qualifications.The department intends to develop a new approval process to determine providers of MQSIs from the start of academic year 2023/24. Our aim is to ensure a steady supply of teachers of children with visual, hearing, and multi-sensory impairment, in both specialist and mainstream settings.

Special Educational Needs

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will ensure that Education and Health Care Plan forms are available in languages other than English.

Will Quince: The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) code of practice makes clear that the format of an education health and care (EHC) plan is agreed locally. Local authorities must decide on the languages that EHC plans are available in, depending on local need. The SEND code of practice is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/398815/SEND_Code_of_Practice_January_2015.pdf

Children: Missing Persons

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department holds data on the total number and proportion of children of compulsory school age in local authorities who were recorded as missing from 2020-22, including the statistical breakdown of the different groups of young people who are known to social services as a result of being a child (a) in need, (b) on a protection plan and (c) in care.

Will Quince: The government takes the matter of any child going missing very seriously and statutory guidance is in place on the responsibilities of local authorities working with partners, to prevent children going missing and to gather and share information and intelligence to reduce this risk. The guidance applies to all children going missing, whether this is from the family home or from care and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/children-who-run-away-or-go-missing-from-home-or-care.The department does not hold data centrally on all children of compulsory school age in local authorities who are missing.Statistics on police reported missing persons incidents are not held centrally either. Individual police forces hold information about current missing persons incidents which have been reported to police. Annual police force level missing persons statistics are published by the National Crime Agency’s Missing Person’s Unit. The most recent data report covers the 2019/20 financial year.The department does collect and publish information on the number of episodes of need (rather than children) where an assessment was made that services may be required, or the child may be at risk of harm due to going/being missing. The published figure for the year ending 31 March 2020 was 18,200 and for the year ending 2021 was 14,490 and cover episodes for all children in need. Figures for those specifically on a child protection plan are not readily available.Owing to their heightened vulnerabilities, the department also collects and publishes annual figures on children in care who were missing or away from placement without authorisation. The total number of children in care who went missing during the year ending 31 March 2020 was 12,430 (which represents 11 per cent of the 108,670 children in care during the year), whilst 10,880 (which represents 10 per cent of the 108,070 children in care during the year) were missing during the year ending 31 March 2021.Statistics for the year ending 31 March 2022 will be published in Autumn 2022.

Adoption: Self-employed

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of self-employed people seeking to adopt.

Will Quince: The Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board collects and publishes information on adopter registrations and adopter approvals. Personal information on prospective adopters is, however, not collected. As a result, the department cannot estimate how many are employed or self-employed.

Ministry of Justice

Prison Officers

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the savings to Government from reduced prison officer numbers since 2010.

Victoria Atkins: During the last decade, a major review of prison officer numbers was undertaken as part of the ‘Prison Unit Cost Programme (PUCP). The PUCP delivered annualised savings of £306 million (15%) over the period 2013-16 against a 2012/13 baseline. Part of the PUCP involved benchmarking of staffing levels across public sector prisons to ensure more efficient delivery of a safe, decent and secure operating environment. Since that exercise was undertaken, prisons have seen their staffing numbers change and adapt in line with operational necessity. For example, staff changes brought about by reconfiguration of the estate and the increase in the number of prison places. £100m has also been invested in implementing the Offender Management in Custody model which added to staff numbers. All investment in additional staff has been aligned to improving outcomes. The Prison Unit Cost Programme also led to the closure of smaller, more expensive prisons and the beginnings of the current programme of new prison builds.

Prison Service: Staff

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) total and (b) full-time equivalent staff were employed in each of the Prison Service Establishment regions in each year since 2010.

Victoria Atkins: Please see accompanying excel file for the number of HMPPS staff employed in each of the Prison Service Establishment Regions, since 31 March 2010.144863_table (xlsx, 26.0KB)

Prison Officers: Length of Service

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) mean and (b) median length of time in employment of prison officers was in each of the Prison Service Establishment Regions in each year since 2010.

Victoria Atkins: Please see accompanying excel file for figures relating to the mean and median length of time in employment of band 3-5 prison officers in each Prison Service Establishment Region since 31 March 2010.144862_table (xlsx, 25.4KB)

Victim Support Schemes: Finance

Anna McMorrin: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the £450m announced as funding for victim support over the next three years is additional or reallocated budget.

Tom Pursglove: At the 2021 Budget, the Government announced that it was significantly increasing support for victim support services to £185m by 2024/25, which is an uplift of 85% from core funding in 2020/21. On Friday 25 March, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that as part of this increased budget, £147m per year will be committed over a multi-year period, from 1 April 2022 until the end of 2024/25. The move to a long-term funding model will enable charities and service providers to recruit and retain essential specialist staff, building the capacity and strengthening their services so they can provide consistent and high-quality support for victims. The money will fund emotional, practical and therapeutic support for victims of crime such as women and girls affected by domestic abuse. This includes helping fund more specialist Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs).

Domestic Abuse: Mental Health Services

Sam Tarry: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made an estimate of the costs of psychiatric assessments in relation to cases where victims of domestic violence are required to prove capacity to make their own choices, having previously surrendered power of attorney, under duress, to their abusers.

Tom Pursglove: We do not collect this data. Any instance of abuse involving Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) would be concerning, and the Mental Capacity Act presumes that everyone has capacity unless it is proven otherwise. The Office of the Public Guardian can investigate any reports made to it regarding an LPA being made under duress. We recently consulted on modernising LPAs to improve safeguards during the registration process and intend to publish the response this spring.

Sexual Offences: Victim Support Schemes

Dawn Butler: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many trained Independent Sexual Violence Advisers were working with police forces in England and Wales in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Victoria Atkins: Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs), and Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs), are commissioned by Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), through grant funding provided by Government for local practical, emotional and therapeutic support services for victims of all crime types, including sexual violence and domestic abuse. It is for PCCs to assess local demand and allocate this funding accordingly. The Ministry of Justice does not hold the specific information requested. The Government is committed to ensuring victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse receive the support they need to cope and recover from the impact of crime. In 2021/22, the Ministry of Justice provided £150.5m for victim and witness support services, which is an increase of £16m from 2020/21 and compares to a total budget of £48.5m in 2010-2011. As part of this, we committed £276,926 to ISVA and IDVA training to enable training providers to increase their capacity to meet demand. We also committed £51m to specifically increase support for rape and domestic abuse victims, including a national investment of £27m over two years to fund up to 700 ISVAs and IDVAs, an increase of 44% on existing provision. This funding has mainly been distributed through Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and the Rape Support Fund, including PCCs and organisations in Wales.In addition, we have committed to increasing annual funding for Ministry of Justice victim support services to over £185 million per annum by 2024-25, an uplift of 85% from 2019-20. This includes funding to increase the number of ISVAs and IDVAs to over 1,000. We have also recently consulted on a Victim’s Bill, to make tangible improvements for all victims. This includes reviewing what more can be done to strengthen victim advocate roles such as ISVAs and IDVAs, reviewing join-up across agencies, standards, guidance and frameworks.

Prison Officers

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) staff in total and (b) full-time equivalent civil service staff were employed to manage prison officer numbers in each year since 2010; and how many of those staff were (a) SCS4, (b) SCS3, (c) SCS2, (d) SCS1, (e) grade 6, (f) grade 7, (g) SEO, (h) HEO, (i) EO and (j) AA.

Victoria Atkins: In the last 12 years there have been a number of different teams managing Prison Officer Recruitment. Due to these changes to the teams, and how the data is recorded, it would be deemed a disproportionate cost to undertake the manual data collection required to answer this PQ.

Prison Officers

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) total and (b) full-time equivalent prison officers were employed in each of the Prison Service Establishment Regions in each year since 2010.

Victoria Atkins: The number of band 3-5 officers in post, by Prison Service Structure each year since 2010 can be found in the attachement: Table 1 (headcount) and Table 2 (full time equivalent). The number of prison officers has increased by more than 4,000 in the last four years and we have committed to hiring an extra 5,000 officers by the mid-2020s. 144858_table (xlsx, 15.6KB)

Prison Officers: Recruitment

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much (a) his Department (b) Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service and (c) the National Offender Management Service has spent on prison officer recruitment in each year since 2010.

Victoria Atkins: The delivery model for prison officer recruitment in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and formerly, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), has changed several times since 2010 to align with business need. This has spanned local, regional and centralised management of campaigns, as well as the current blended approach of central and local management, with recruitment costs delegated across roles in individual prisons, regional delivery areas, centralised teams and contracted suppliers. Therefore, we do not hold complete figures in each year since 2010 as this information is held in a number of different areas and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. We have included spend for centralised prison officer campaigns since 2019/20.

Prison Officers: Recruitment

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much (a) his Department and (b) HMPPS or NOMS has spent on advertisements for prison officer recruitment in each year since 2010; and how much of that expenditure was for (i) print, (ii) radio, (iii) television and (iv) online advertising.

Victoria Atkins: The delivery model for prison officer recruitment in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and formerly, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), has changed several times since 2010 to align with business need. This has spanned local, regional and centralised management of campaigns, as well as the current blended approach of central and local management, with advertising spend delegated across roles in individual prisons, regional delivery areas, centralised teams and contracted suppliers. Therefore, we do not hold complete figures in each year since 2010 as this information is held in a number of different areas and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Spend detail on the type of media channel is unavailable, as is spend on local campaigns, and so the figures do not represent the overall marketing budget on prison officer recruitment in those years and collation could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

National Offender Management Service and Prison and Probation Service: Agency Workers

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much (a) Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service and (b) the National Offender Management Service has spent on temporary agency staff in each year since 2010.

Victoria Atkins: The table below shows the annual spend on agency staff for the financial years from 2010-11 to 2015-16. Beyond this point, these figures appear in the HMPPS annual report and accounts, which available online. The number of prison officers has increased by more than 4,000 in the last four years and we have committed to hiring an extra 5,000 officers by the mid-2020s.Financial Year£m2015-1659.572014-1548.292013-1435.402012-1331.302011-1224.592010-1129.50

Prison Officers: Pay

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of granting a pay rise to prison officers.

Victoria Atkins: Prison Officer pay rates are reviewed annually through the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) process. The PSPRB process for 2022/23 is currently underway. When considering our proposals to the Prison Service Pay Review Body (PSPRB) we carefully consider the expected impact on recruitment, retention and staff morale of any proposed pay award. We have recently submitted our evidence to the PSPRB for the coming pay round which proposes a pay award for all Prison Officers. PSPRB information be found on the Gov UK website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/prison-services-pay-review-body.

Domestic Abuse: Advisory Services

Dawn Butler: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much funding has been allocated to training Independent Domestic Violence Advisors in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Victoria Atkins: In 2021/22, the Ministry of Justice provided £150.5m for victim and witness support services. This included £276,926 to Independent Sexual Violence Adviser (ISVA) and Independent Domestic Violence Adviser (IDVA) training providers, to enable them to increase their capacity to meet demand. The £150.5m for victim and witness services also includes £51m ringfenced funding to meet increased demand for domestic abuse and sexual violence victims, including a national investment of £27m over two years to fund up to 700 ISVAs and IDVAs. In 2020/21, we provided £32m over two rounds of emergency funding for domestic abuse and sexual violence services. Most funding is routed through Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), who assess local demand and allocate funding accordingly. In addition, the Ministry of Justice has committed to increasing funding for victim support services to £185 million by 2024-25 – this includes funding to increase the number of ISVAs and IDVAs funded to over 1,000. We have also recently consulted on a Victim’s Bill, including reviewing what more can be done to strengthen victim advocate roles such as ISVAs and IDVAs, reviewing join-up across agencies, standards, guidance and frameworks.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Ukraine: Gender Based Violence

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations the Government has made to Russia on gender-based violence in Ukraine, reportedly perpetrated by Russian soldiers in Ukraine.

James Cleverly: I [Minister Cleverly] spoke with my Russian counterpart on 25 February, where I stressed the importance of respecting International Humanitarian Law. As the Foreign Secretary has made clear, Russia's barbaric acts must be investigated and those responsible held to account. That is why the UK worked with partners to refer the situation in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court, to establish a Commission of Inquiry through the UN Human Rights Council and, with the support of Ukraine, to establish an OSCE Mission of Experts under the Moscow Mechanism. The UK is committed to addressing violence against women and girls overseas.

UK Trade with EU

Mick Whitley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will ensure that the EU-UK TCA Domestic Advisory Group will have balanced representation with a third of seats allocated to trade unions, a third to employers, and third to other civil society groups.

James Cleverly: We are working closely with other government departments and the devolved administrations to try to ensure a balanced, sectoral and geographical representation of civil society organisations including business organisations, Trade Unions, NGOs and charities, to represent all four nations of the UK.

UK Trade with EU

Mick Whitley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will confirm when the first meeting of the EU-UK TCA Domestic Advisory Group meeting will be held.

James Cleverly: The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is responsible for the Civil Society obligations in the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Ministers are finalising the membership list for the UK Domestic Advisory Group and details of the first meeting will be announced shortly.

Disinformation

Alicia Kearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the Information Unit in her Department will coordinate its work with the Counter Disinformation Cell led by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport; and whether that unit is (a) permanent and (b) will be in constant operation.

James Cleverly: The Government Information Cell (GIC) has been established specifically to support the UK's response to Russian disinformation relating to their invasion of Ukraine. The GIC works in partnership with all relevant parts of Government, including the Counter Disinformation Unit based in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It has been established as a surge team, with a view to its work informing the Government's longer-term approach to countering disinformation.

Ukraine: Humanitarian Aid

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the £25 million matched Disasters Emergency Committee Appeal aid funding to Ukraine is (a) part of or (b) separate to the £220 million in humanitarian aid announced by the Government; and whether that £25 million of aid funding  will be counted as (i) part of or (ii) in addition to the 0.5 per cent GNI ODA budget.

James Cleverly: The humanitarian response to Ukraine is a priority for the FCDO and the international community. The £25 million matched Disasters Emergency Committee Appeal funding is part of the £220 million allocated for life-saving humanitarian assistance. This will come from the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget and will be within the 0.5 percent settlement.

Iran: Nuclear Power

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what role the Government of Russia is undertaking in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

James Cleverly: Russia is a participant of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), alongside China, the European Union, France, Germany, Iran and the United Kingdom. We have been engaged in negotiations in Vienna, with all JCPoA participants and the US, aimed at returning Iran to full compliance with its JCPoA commitments. There is now a deal on the table which would return Iran to full compliance with its JCPoA commitments and return the US to the deal. We urge all parties to focus on rapidly concluding the deal and implementing it in full.

UN Mine Action Service: Ukraine

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support the United Nations Mine Action Service is providing on military (a) training and (b) equipment in Ukraine.

James Cleverly: The United Nations Mine Action Service does not currently operate in Ukraine. The UK continues to support landmine and unexploded ordinance risk education and remote survey activities and to assess the scale and scope of the current threat so that we can coordinate with others and respond appropriately; including with mine clearance when circumstances allow.

Russia: Nuclear Power Stations

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if her Department will take steps to encourage her international partners to ensure that sanctions on Russia include nuclear facilities located in other sovereign territories.

James Cleverly: The UK is working with our international partners to ensure any action is coordinated and inflicts the maximum damage to parties involved in the unlawful invasion of Ukraine. We will continue to work with allies to identify targets as appropriate but will not comment on future sanctions.

Rosatom: Sanctions

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will take steps to ensure that all the international activities of Rosatom are subject to Russian sanctions.

James Cleverly: The UK does not speculate on future sanctions. However, we have made clear that we will continue to increase pressure on Putin's regime to ensure he is unable to fuel his barbaric war machine.

Platinum Jubilee 2022: British Overseas Territories

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department plans to take to work with the British Overseas Territories to celebrate The Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

Amanda Milling: The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has issued guidance to its teams in the Overseas Territories, and in other locations, to mark Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee. They are encouraged to work with local partners and create opportunities throughout the year to celebrate this important milestone. For example, they may choose to host 'Queen's Birthday Party' events, support tree planting for the Queen's Green Canopy and the lighting of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Beacons. They may also amplify wider initiatives for the Jubilee, such as the Platinum Pudding Competition, the Big Jubilee Lunch and the 2022 Platinum Jubilee Civic Honours Competition, through which George Town (Cayman Islands), Gibraltar (Gibraltar) and Stanley (Falkland Islands) have applied for city status.

Development Aid

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the budget was for the ODA crisis reserve in each of the last five years; and what the projected budget is for 2022-23.

James Cleverly: The 2015 UK Aid Strategy and the 2015 Spending Review created a £500 million Official Development Assistance (ODA) Crisis Reserve which was allocated to DFID. £200 million of this was for allocation to emerging crises during the year. £300 million was allocated to live programming across the portfolio but which could be redeployed to crisis activity if required.The Written Ministerial Statement of 21 April 2021 announced the detail of the UK ODA allocations for FY21/22, including £906 million for humanitarian preparedness and response with £30 million of this to be held as a central crisis reserve.ODA allocations for 2022-23 will be published in in due course.

Ukraine: Development Aid

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much of the approximately £400 million in emergency humanitarian and economic support pledged to Ukraine is to be funded through (a) the ODA crisis reserve, (b) reallocations of core funding and (c) other reserve claims.

James Cleverly: The UK has committed £394 million in aid to the current crisis in Ukraine. This includes £220 million for humanitarian assistance; £100 million for energy security and reform and £74 million direct fiscal support through the World Bank. This will come from the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget this year and over the next three financial years. The ODA budget is currently set at 0.5% of GNI as per the Spending Review settlement announced in November 2021.

Belarus: Development Aid

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to figure 5 in Statistics on International Development: final UK aid spend 2020, how much Official Development Assistance Belarus received in the financial years (a) 2020-2021 and (b) 2021-22; and how much of that money was spent on research and development in each of those financial years.

James Cleverly: The Statistics on International Development (SID) National Statistics report, published on the gov.uk website, provides an overview of all official UK spend on Official Development Assistance (ODA). ODA is an international measure and is collected and reported on a calendar year basis. UK bilateral ODA to ODA-eligible European countries is reported in Table A4d. In 2020, non-state and other non-government actors, who are working on behalf of the people of Belarus, received £1.5 million of UK bilateral ODA. None of this funding was classed as Research & Development though small amounts of funding for analysis and evaluation is often included in programme and project work.Figures for 2021 will be available in the Autumn when FCDO publishes "Statistics on International Development: Final UK Aid Spend 2021".

Ukraine: Humanitarian Aid

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate she has made of the amount and proportion of her Department’s Official Development Assistance expenditure in response to the crisis in Ukraine that will be met from (a) contingency funds and (b) redeployment of previously assigned funds.

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the impact of ODA spending in response to the crisis in Ukraine on total ODA spending to above the 0.5 per cent of GNI target.

James Cleverly: The response to Ukraine is a priority for the FCDO and the international community. The UK has committed £394 million in aid to the current crisis in Ukraine the breakdown of which is in the Foreign Secretary's letter to the IDC [https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/9404/documents/161135/default]. This will come from the Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget this year and over the next three financial years. This year's contribution will all be met from contingency and emerging departmental underspends. The Department is currently finalising allocations for the next 3 financial years based on the Spending Review outcome and these will be published in due course.

UK-EU Civil Society Forum and UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement Domestic Advisory Group

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what her planned timetable is for the establishment of the TCA UK Domestic Advisory Group and Civil Society Forum.

James Cleverly: The Civil Society obligations in the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement moved to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). FCDO ministers are currently finalising the UK Domestic Advisory Group membership list and the first meeting is expected shortly.The Government is in discussions with the European Commission to set the date for the Civil Society Forum which will take place after the first meeting of the Domestic Advisory Group. The UK delegation to the Civil Society Forum will be announced once the guidelines which underpin the forum are agreed by the TCA Partnership Council.

Ukraine: Humanitarian Aid

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she plans to (a) end, (b) reduce funding for or (c) not provide anticipated funding for any UK Aid projects in order to enable the increase of funding for Ukraine.

James Cleverly: The UK has now pledged £220 million of Official Development Assistance (counted as part of the 0.5% Gross National Income) for humanitarian assistance to meet immediate humanitarian needs and support the international humanitarian response to the crisis in Ukraine and the region. In addition to our humanitarian funding the UK has provided £74 million of fiscal support alongside £100 million in support for energy resilience. We are on track to meet our target of £60 million disbursed by the end of March.So far this financial year we have disbursed funding to humanitarian agencies in Ukraine; committed £25 million to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Appeal through the UK Aid match scheme, which has now raised over £200 million. The UK has delivered eleven aircraft loads of medical equipment, totalling over 3.7 million items, including wound care packs, ventilators, over 350,000 individual doses of medicine, including antibiotics and pain relief to support surgery and post-operative recovery and generators to provide power including for hospitals and water treatment plants . We also brought 21 children with cancer and their families to the UK for treatment.We will set out aid allocations in due course.

Ukraine: Humanitarian Aid

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2022 to Question 143624, whether humanitarian aid shipped by volunteer organisations to (a) Ukraine and (b) surrounding countries can include torches, battery packs and power packs.

James Cleverly: Government guidance on what people can do to help can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukraine-what-you-can-do-to-help. Each volunteer organisation will have different criteria about what can be included in their aid.UK funding will also help aid agencies respond to the deteriorating humanitarian situation, creating a lifeline to help Ukrainians access basic necessities. The UK has delivered generators to Ukraine to provide power including for hospitals and water treatment plants. In partnership with Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on 29 March and 31 March we will deliver supplies from FCDO's humanitarian aid stocks - including blankets, kitchen sets, solar lanterns (which have the ability to charge mobile phones) and hygiene kits - to the UN Refugee Agency.

Ukraine: Humanitarian Aid

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether in kind donations to Ukraine of equipment, such as medical supplies and power generators, are counted (a) as ODA and (b) as part of the 0.5 per cent GNI budget.

James Cleverly: Donations of equipment such as medical supplies and power generators from the UK's official sector to Ukraine that are made in line with the OECD's ODA directives will be reported as ODA and will be within the 0.5 percent settlement.

Ukraine: World Bank

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the $500 million guarantee in the event of a default by Ukraine on the planned World Bank loan will be counted as ODA; whether that guarantee would be covered by the existing 0.5 per cent GNI ODA budget; and what steps her Department is taking to manage that budget in the context of a potential default by that country.

James Cleverly: In the event of a default by Ukraine on the planned World Bank loan, the $500 million guarantee would be eligible to be counted as Official Development Assistance (ODA). However, at this time we are unable to speculate on a hypothetical situation and therefore cannot comment on whether it would be counted within the 0.5%GNI ODA budget.

Ukraine: Refugees

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the costs of hosting Ukrainian refugees in the UK will be (a) reported as Official Development Assistance and (b) be counted towards the 0.5 percent GNI ODA budget.

James Cleverly: Some support for refugees in the first twelve months of their stay in a donor country such as the UK is ODA eligible according to the OECD's directives on ODA. It will be for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to report the costs incurred for hosting Ukrainian refugees if they meet the ODA directives. At this point we are not sure what the costs will be.

Debts: British Overseas Territories

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the liabilities or obligations are of an Overseas Territory in the event that it defaults on its debt to international creditors; in what circumstances her Department would be obliged by statute or constitutional provisions to offer financial assistance to, or assume those liabilities; on how many occasions this has happened; and what mechanisms were used.

Amanda Milling: The UK Government's fundamental responsibility is to ensure the security and good governance of the Territories. The UK maintains mechanisms to effectively manage these responsibilities and to ensure they exercise sound public financial management. The Overseas Territories Governments are responsible for their own fiscal policy. Most territories rely on local revenue and borrowing, and are responsible for their own liabilities. The UK Government does not have a trustee or guarantor role when the Territories borrow. In some cases, the UK Government has chosen to support Overseas Territories financially, such as regular financial aid to certain territories and ad hoc support in times of crisis. For example, the UK agreed a loan guarantee for a lending facility in 2020 with the Government of Gibraltar to support their response to Covid-19. The UK Government is not aware of any examples of an Overseas Territory defaulting on its debt to international creditors.

Tigray: British Nationals Abroad

Ms Anum Qaisar: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support her Department has provided to British Citizens attempting to leave the Tigray region.

Vicky Ford: Since the beginning of the conflict on 4 November 2020, we have advised British Nationals to leave Tigray. There have been opportunities to leave during that time including four convoys organised by the UN during the initial stages of the conflict which we supported. In the period from January to June 2021, Ethiopian Airlines flights were operating between Mekele and Addis Ababa. We are aware of several British Nationals who chose not leave at that time. Those flights and routes out were curtailed when the conflict escalated in the summer of 2021. We have not been able to secure a safe route out of Tigray since that time. We are currently working with partners to explore possible routes out. We will also continue to be at the forefront of the international effort to de-escalate the conflict and alleviate suffering, and welcome the humanitarian ceasefire announced by both sides on 24 March.

Capital Punishment: British Nationals Abroad

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of British nationals who have been convicted of capital offences in foreign territories.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which foreign sovereign states hold British nationals convicted of capital offences as of 22 March 2022.

Amanda Milling: As at March 2022, the FCDO was providing consular assistance to eight British nationals sentenced to death overseas in four foreign territories. Consular Transparency Data for 2022 can be found on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foreign-commonwealth-development-office-consular-data-2022). We do not provide a breakdown of statistics where the number is equal to, or less than, five as this might lead to the identification of an individual. It is a longstanding policy of the UK Government to oppose the death penalty, in all circumstances, as a matter of principle. We work closely with legal teams engaged by British nationals facing the death penalty, and are assisted in this by Reprieve and the Death Penalty Project (DPP), two NGOs that provide legal assistance and advice to those facing the death penalty abroad.

Qatar: Islamic State

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has had recent discussions with the Qatari Government on ISIS terrorist attacks in that country.

Amanda Milling: Qatar is a longstanding partner of the UK in the fight against terrorism. Ensuring the enduring defeat of Daesh and countering the terrorist threat posed in Syria, Iraq and beyond is a core priority for the UK Government.

Economic Situation: British Overseas Territories

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has made a recent estimate of the economic value of the Overseas Territories to the UK economy.

Amanda Milling: The Overseas Territories are a valued part of the British Family and the UK Government is committed to supporting the Territories in building successful and resilient economies. The Territories offer the UK: access and insights into diverse regions of the world; strategic assets, including military bases hosted by some Territories; economic opportunities for UK companies, including for financial sector specialists; protection of internationally important habitats, helping the UK meet its pledge to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030 (together we represent the world's fifth largest marine state); and talent and diversity, with the people of the Territories contributing their skills to UK businesses, universities, and Armed Forces. The UK has not made a recent quantitative estimate of the economic value of the Overseas Territories to the UK economy, but we continue to support the Territories build vibrant and sustainable economies, including through encouraging greater links to the UK economy.

UN Mine Action Service: Development Aid

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much financial support her Department has given to the work and activities of the United Nations Mine Action Service in each of the last 3 years.

Amanda Milling: Since 2018, under the second iteration of the Global Mine Action Programme (GMAP2), the UK has been one of the most generous countries in the world in funding demining. At completion of GMAP2 in March 2022, the UK will have invested £146 million to help clear deadly explosive devices worldwide since 2018. GMAP2 has cleared and confirmed safe 464.9 million square metres of land, the equivalent of over 65,107 football pitches, and has delivered risk education messages to over 3.84 million people in communities affected by mines. As part of GMAP2, the UK funded the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) with £18,491,660 in 2019/2020, £12,030,000 in 2020/2021 and £11,000,000 in 2021/2022.The FCDO remains committed to continuing its support to mine action across the globe. The Global Mine Action Programme 3 (GMAP3) is due to begin in financial year 2022/23. We are working towards finalising funding and country allocations and will share plans as soon as this work is complete.

South Africa: Carbon Emissions

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the The Joint Statement: International Just Energy Transition Partnership Joint Statement, published on 2 November 2021, which announced an initial commitment of $8.5 billion for the first phase of financing, how much the Government is providing; what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of that financial commitment; and from what budget that funding is coming from.

Vicky Ford: The UK is among the world's leading providers of climate finance, with a commitment to double our spend over the next 5 years (to £11.6 billion). The UK's contribution to the Just Energy Transition Partnership forms part of this. Together with USA, Germany, France and the EU, and in partnership with development finance institutions and leveraging additional significant support from the multilateral development banks and the private sector including capital markets, we are working with South Africa on the structures for the $8.5 billion package announced at COP26. This includes work on the investment plans that will underpin the package. The funding will come primarily from the FCDO budget.

Energy: Carbon Emissions

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to The Joint Statement: International Just Energy Transition Partnership with South Africa of 2 November 2021, what plans the Government has for other Just Energy Transition Partnerships to support other countries.

Vicky Ford: Just Energy Transition Partnerships are a key delivery mechanism for the Clean Green Initiative announced by the Prime Minister at COP26 in November last year, and will improve global energy sustainability and security by reducing dependence on fossil fuels. These partnerships will provide a single focal point to channel technical assistance, public finance, and - crucially - private finance to support a host country's energy transition ambitions.Following on from the announcement of the Just Energy Transition Partnership with South Africa at COP26, we have been working closely with partners to reach agreement with other potential host country governments. We look forward to the announcement of partnerships with further countries later this year.

Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to her letter of 21 March 2022 to the International Development Committee entitled Update on FCDO structures, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the leadership changes outlined in that letter on the newly launched Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation, announced in the letter of 9 February 2022 from the Minister for Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean to the International Development Committee; and to which Director General that Office will report to.

Vicky Ford: We are witnessing a profound geopolitical shift following Russia's unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine. The FCDO is adapting its internal leadership arrangements and structures to ensure it is equipped to meet immediate and long-term global challenges. Implications for specific Directorates/teams are under review.

Human Rights

Stuart Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent progress she has made with her international counterparts on tackling human rights abuses in human rights priority countries.

Vicky Ford: The UK works to promote human rights across all 31 human rights priority countries, drawing on the range of diplomatic and development levers available to encourage States to meet their international human rights obligations. The forthcoming 2021 FCDO Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report will set out recent engagement and work on human rights across all human rights priority countries. Examples include Myanmar, where we continue to use all available multilateral fora to condemn human rights violations committed by the military regime. Most recently in February we secured a UN Security Council Press Statement which called for an end to the violence and respect for human rights.

Ulster Scots Language

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the reasons for which Scots is not afforded protection under Part III of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

Vicky Ford: No such approach has been received from the UK Government, this issue is a devolved matter.

Ministry of Defence

Asia-Pacific Region: Type 32 Frigates

Jamie Stone: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the estimated cost is of stationing a Type 32 frigate in the Indo-Pacific.

James Heappey: The Type 32 programme is in pre-concept phase, therefore the costs associated with stationing a frigate at different locations - including the Indo-Pacific - will be built up as the programme matures.

Ajax Vehicles

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his Answer of 22 March 2022 to Question 141148 on Ajax Vehicles, which role is currently vacant.

Jeremy Quin: The role of the Risk Assumptions Issues Dependencies & Opportunities (RAIDO) Lead is currently vacant within the Ajax programme team it became vacant on 1 March 2022 and we anticipate that the recruitment process for a replacement will commence soon.

Ajax Vehicles: Safety

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of whether Defence Equipment and Support's response to DSTL's reporting of safety issues on the AJAX programme was compliant with Departmental guidelines since 2014.

Jeremy Quin: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 22 March 2022, to Questions 140393, 140394 and 140396.140393 - Ajax Vehicles (docx, 20.8KB)

War Pensions: Complaints

Owen Thompson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing referral to the Independent Case Examiner as a stage in the War Pensions complaints process.

Leo Docherty: There are no plans for the War Pensions Scheme (WPS) to include the right of referral to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE). WPS decisions carry full rights of appeal to an independent Tribunal and this existing process is effective, fit for purpose, and functioning satisfactorily. The addition of ICE to the process would add an additional step that replicates existing appeals provision which would not enhance, and serve only to delay, the appeals process.

Department for Work and Pensions

Universal Credit: Deductions

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2022 to Question 129166 on Universal Credit: Deductions, how many children were living in households in receipt of universal credit and subject to deductions in the most recent month for which data are available, by parliamentary constituency.

David Rutley: The Government recognises the importance of supporting the welfare of claimants who have incurred debt. We seek to balance recovery of debt against not causing hardship for claimants and their families. Since April 2021, we have reduced the normal maximum rate of deductions in Universal Credit from 40% to 25% of a claimant’s Standard Allowance. These positive measures were put in place to support claimants to manage financial difficulties. The requested information is provided in the attached spreadsheet.Table (xlsx, 40.7KB)

Discretionary Housing Payments

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of tenants who will be able to obtain a Discretionary Housing Payment from their local authority in 2022-23 to help cover a shortfall arising from the impact of the benefit cap, spare room subsidy and freeze on Local Housing Allowance rates as a result of the Government's decision to reduce funding from £140 million in 2021-22 to £100 million in 2022-23.

David Rutley: No such estimate has been made. Since 2011, the government has provided almost £1.5 billion in Discretionary Housing Payments to local authorities to help support claimants who require further financial assistance with housing costs. In addition to the central government contribution, of £100 million for 2022/23, English and Welsh local authorities can top up Discretionary Housing Payment funding up to a maximum of two and a half times this figure using their own funds. We also provide local authorities with non-statutory guidance to assist with their decision making. This includes supporting those who are impacted by the Local Housing Allowance, Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy and the benefit cap.

Universal Credit

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the note on the cover report for the Universal Credit Programme Board’s meeting of 22 October 2019, what follow-up actions were agreed between the then Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office and the Director General of Universal Credit to tackle the difficulties faced by vulnerable claimants when moving onto Universal Credit.

David Rutley: The Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit (PMIU) conducted a deep dive on the effectiveness of support for vulnerable Universal Credit (UC) claimants. DWP and PMIU worked together to consider these findings in detail.Following a suspension during the response to the pandemic, this work is continuing on further improvements to the customer journey, especially for vulnerable claimants. This includes having established a new Customer Experience Directorate to ensure that the Department has the services and tools in place to help the most vulnerable.

Maternity Pay

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 23 February 2022 to Question 125365 and 8 March 2022 to Question 134067 on Maternity Allowance, and with reference to the data on Statutory Maternity Pay starts provided by HMRC in Freedom of Information Act responses dated 5 June 2019 (FOI2019/01113) and 24 September 2021 (FOI2021/20932), what assessment she has made of the reasons for the absence of any decline in the number of Statutory Maternity Pay starts over the period in which the number of grants of Maternity Allowance to employed women has fallen by 45 per cent.

Guy Opperman: Statutory Maternity Pay is delivered through HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The Department for Work and Pensions does not hold the raw data on Statutory Maternity Payment starts.

Bereavement Benefits: Parents

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will introduce a bereavement support payment for parents who were full-time carers of a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition following the child's death.

Guy Opperman: There are currently no plans to introduce a Bereavement Support Payment (BSP) for parents who were full-time carer’s of a child with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition. BSP is payable to working-age people following the death of a spouse or civil partner. BSP is a contributory benefit, based on the late spouse or civil partner’s National Insurance contributions. For support with funeral costs, the Children’s Funeral Fund ensures that bereaved parents do not have to meet the costs of a burial or cremation for their child. Where the bereaved parent is also on qualifying benefit, they may also receive support through the Funeral Expenses Payment scheme to help towards the cost of a funeral.

Pension Credit: North West Norfolk

James Wild: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the number of people who are entitled to pension credit in North West Norfolk constituency who are not in receipt of it.

Guy Opperman: Estimates for the number of people eligible for Pension Credit are only available at the Great Britain level. The latest publication relates to the financial year 2019 to 2020 and can be viewed here: Income-related benefits: estimates of take-up: financial year 2019 to 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Plants: Genetically Modified Organisms

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to consult on forthcoming ACRE advice on qualifying higher plants in the Genetically Modified Organisms (Deliberate Release) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2022 before implementation; whether adherence to that advice will be voluntary or obligatory.

Jo Churchill: We have no plans to consult on the guidance prepared by the ACRE on qualifying higher plants (QHP) in the Genetically Modified Organisms (Deliberate Release) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2022 before its implementation. Plant developers will be responsible for ensuring that the correct process is followed and will be required to confirm on the notification to Defra that they have consulted the guidance in reaching a decision about the QHP status of their plant.We have more than thirty years of experience of GMO field trials and there is no evidence that any of these have affected commercial crops or the wider environment.

Plants: Genetically Modified Organisms

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what (a) role the Genetic Modification Inspectorate will play and (b) procedures it will follow in monitoring and reporting on environmental releases of qualifying higher plants under the terms of the Genetically Modified Organisms (Deliberate Release) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2022.

Jo Churchill: The Genetic Modification Inspectorate carries out inspections of Genetically Modified Organism field trials in accordance with the powers granted to them under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, including for qualifying higher plants where there is a possibility of non-compliance.We have more than thirty years of experience of GMO field trials and there is no evidence that any of these have affected commercial crops or the wider environment.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals on the use of propane gas in the place of more environmentally damaging fluorinated gasses for refrigeration purposes.

Jo Churchill: Defra is reviewing the F-gas Regulation with a view to identifying potential further action to address the use and emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases). This will support the Government’s net zero objective. The review will consider the various alternative gases with low global warming potential that could be used instead of F-gases, depending on the circumstances of each application. Such alternatives include propane.

Water Supply: Climate Change

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Adaptation Committee’s recommendations on page 28 of the Climate Change Committee's report of June 2021 entitled, Progress in adapting to climate change: 2021 Report to Parliament, what plans his Department has to take steps to mitigate the implications on water management of a two degrees Celsius warming scenario.

Jo Churchill: Adapting to climate change is essential if we are to meet the 25 Year Environment Plan goal of achieving clean and plentiful water.The Climate Change Committee’s Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk offers a detailed insight into the growing risks and opportunities the UK and its natural environment faces from climate change. This evidence has informed our third Climate Change Risk Assessment, which we laid in Parliament on 17 January 2022, and will inform the development of the third National Adaptation Programme, expected to run between 2023 to 2028. NAP3 will address the risks and opportunities for a 2ºC warming scenario, to continue to build a more resilient country, with a focus on enhanced ambition, implementation, and evaluation.The Environment Agency is committed to designing an approach to working with regulated industries around impacts (including those related to water scarcity) associated with a 4°C rise in global mean temperature by 2100.The Environment Agency’s National Framework sets out how we expect to see improved collaboration to aid the environment and the sustainable use of water resources. This approach will inform water companies’ statutory water resources management plans, which set out how they will secure water supplies in the long term. The statutory plans must take account of future pressures, including climate change and drought resilience improvements. To further improve water demand management, the Government is consulting on a water demand target under the Environment Act 2021.

Waste Disposal: Fees and Charges

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2022 to Question 136639 on Waste Disposal: Fees and Charges, if he will publish the names of the 221 waste collection authorities that charge for garden waste collection.

Jo Churchill: The Government does not require local authorities to report on the use of charging systems for waste. However, Defra works closely with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to track local authority recycling. Details of the garden waste collection service types provided by each local authority in England are publicly available on the WRAP Local Authority Portal.

Climate Change

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to ensure the UK is not highly vulnerable in relation to climate change.

Jo Churchill: We have already taken significant steps to safeguard communities from the impact of climate change, particularly from increasingly frequent episodes of flooding, and know that we must do more to prepare for the potential impacts of a warmer world. The Climate Change Committee’s Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk offers a detailed insight into the growing risks and opportunities the UK faces from climate change. This evidence has informed our third Climate Change Risk Assessment, which we laid in Parliament on 17 January 2022, and will inform the development of the third National Adaptation Programme, expected to run between 2023 to 2028. Our ambition for NAP3 is to have a clear set of objectives for adaptation, and a systematic and robust set of policies, programmes and investments to meet those objectives.In terms of recent steps, we are taking a holistic approach to flood risk management including encouraging more natural flood management where appropriate, alongside engineered defences. We are engaging with infrastructure providers, regulators and public bodies by inviting them to submit reports on their climate preparedness under the Adaptation Reporting Power. In our third adaptation reporting round, we received reports covering over 100 individual organisations, setting out how they are preparing for climate change. This includes those responsible for water, energy, transport, environment, heritage, health and finance.

Nature Conservation

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has for proposals for a legislative nature restoration target; and whether he plans to make funding available to the public and private sectors to support that target.

Rebecca Pow: The Environment Act 2021 requires a new legally binding target to be set to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030, alongside other biodiversity targets we are currently consulting on. This world leading target will drive wide-ranging actions to deliver nature recovery.This target will be supported by significant investment from public and private sources, recognising the scale of the challenge. This includes over £750 million through the Nature for Climate Fund, biodiversity net gain and future farming agri-environment schemes.The Government has also set a new target to mobilise at least £500 million in private finance to support nature's recovery every year by 2027 in England, rising to more than £1 billion by 2030. As part of the work to realise this ambition, we are catalysing a pipeline of investible nature projects through the £10 million Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund and developing an impact fund that blends £30 million of public capital with private sector capital to invest in projects of this type.

Home Office

Homes for Ukraine Scheme

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas the Government had issued to Ukrainian refugees under the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine) as of 24 March 2022.

Kevin Foster: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Asylum: Equality

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she will take to ensure equal treatment of asylum seekers of all ethnicities and nationalities fleeing war; and if she will make a statement.

Kevin Foster: The UK has a proud record of providing protection for people who need it, in accordance with our obligations under the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). As a signatory to the Refugee Convention and ECHR, we are legally obliged to consider all asylum claims made in the UK and admitted to the asylum system, and we are legally obliged to consider people’s human rights in all circumstances where a person would be removed from the UK.Every asylum claim, regardless of the ethnicity or nationality of the claimant is carefully considered on its individual merits by assessing all the evidence provided by the claimant against a background of country information from a wide range of credible sources, including the Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Office, the media and non-governmental sources, such as the UNHCR, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.Refugee status is granted when someone has a well-founded fear of persecution under the Refugee Convention for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. For those who do not have a well-founded fear of persecution for a convention reason, we consider whether they are at risk of serious harm and are in need of protection on humanitarian grounds. This ensures that we do not remove anyone who faces persecution or serious harm on return to their country of origin.All asylum decision making policies are developed and reviewed in line with our duties under the Equality Act 2010; to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under this Act; advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it; and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it. Protected characteristics include race.

Naturalisation

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) applications for British citizenship by naturalisation have been made and (b) applicants have been granted British citizenship by naturalisation in each of the last six years.

Kevin Foster: The Home Office publishes UK data on applications and grants of British Nationality in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’.Data on applications and grants of British Citizenship by naturalisation, by year, are published in table Cit_01 of the Citizenship summary tables dataset. The latest data relates to 2021.

Refugees: Ukraine

Mike Kane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that refugees who are (a) Ukrainian citizens and (b) third country nationals fleeing from Ukraine have safe passage to the UK.

Kevin Foster: Our humanitarian response has been developed in close consultation with the government of Ukraine and we will continue to support those who wish to come to the UK as a result of the current situation.The Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine) allows Ukrainian citizens and their family members, including non-Ukrainian nationals, to come to the UK and is free to apply. Those who are eligible will receive an official permission letter from the Home Office that will enable their travel to the UK.Third country nationals can apply for visas to come to the UK in the usual way.

Youth Mobility Scheme

Simon Jupp: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on extending the Youth Mobility Scheme.

Kevin Foster: We remain committed to negotiating Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) arrangements with other countries and territories, including the EU or nations within it. On 01 January, Iceland became a new addition to the scheme demonstrating the Government’s commitment to further expansion.However, as each YMS is subject to a bilateral, reciprocal agreement which also provides benefit to UK nationals with the detail negotiated and agreed between the relevant parties, we are unable to disclose the status of negotiations as they occur. Further details of additional YMS agreements will be announced once they are concluded.

Skilled Workers: Vacancies

Simon Jupp: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the Shortage Occupation List will be asked to consider the potential merits of treating occupations at qualification Level 1 and qualification Level 2 the same.

Kevin Foster: The Government intends to commission the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to undertake a review of the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) later this year. The exact terms of the commission will be set out in a letter to the Chair of the MAC and will be published on GOV.UK, in line with the approach taken for previous SOL commissions.More broadly, acting upon advice from the MAC, the Government broadened out the skills threshold of the Skilled Worker route to include occupations at RQF level 3 and lowered the general salary threshold to £25,600. The MAC’s modelling suggests the new threshold strikes a reasonable balance between controlling immigration and providing businesses access to labour.Being on the SOL does not exempt an occupation from meeting the wider requirements of the Skilled Worker immigration route.

Crimes of Violence

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to her Department’s report, The economic and social costs of domestic abuse, published on 21 January 2019, whether the estimated unit costs in cases of (a) violence with injury, (b) violence without injury and (c) rape are still in use by her Department and other agencies; and what assessment her Department has made of the reliability of the methodology used to generate them.

Kit Malthouse: Home Office (2019) 'The economic and social costs of domestic abuse' is still in use by the Department, as it is currently the most comprehensive estimate of the social and economic costs of domestic abuse in England and Wales.The report was peer reviewed by independent academics. In more recent published Impact Assessments, for example DA Act Impact Assessment (publishing.service.gov.uk) estimated costs of domestic abuse are inflated to the relevant price year; however this does not consider any changes in the prevalence of domestic abuse or any changes in unit costs since the year the report was based on (year ending March 2017).The report follows the same underlying approach used in Home Office (2018) ‘Economic and social costs of crime: second edition’ which was also peer -reviewed. Unlike many other crimes, domestic abuse is not a single time-limited event and can include crimes such as violence with injury, violence without injury and rape. While the Home Office (2018) ‘Economic and social costs of crime: second edition’ report estimates the cost of individual incidents, the costs of domestic abuse is based on the number of victims (year ending March 2017) and the harms they will suffer during and after their period of abuse.

Independent Office for Police Conduct

Ms Diane Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has plans to take steps to speed up the time it takes for the IOPC to publish its reports.

Kit Malthouse: The publication of investigation reports usually follows the conclusion of all relevant proceedings and the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s publication policy states that “reports and investigation summaries should normally be published as soon as possible following the conclusion of all related external proceedings.”In 2020 the Home Office legislated for significant changes to the police disciplinary system, in part to facilitate quicker disciplinary proceedings. Later this year we will publish misconduct data collected since the introduction of the reforms, including on timeliness of proceedings following investigations.In June 2021 the Home Secretary announced that she would bring forward the next periodic review of the efficiency and effectiveness of the IOPC. This work will begin shortly.

Offences against Children: Internet

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2022 to Question 143686, how many online child sexual abuse cases the National Crime Agency disseminated to each police force, Region or NCA Investigations for action in the period from March 2020 to February 2021.

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2022 to Question 143686, how many online child sexual abuse cases the National Crime Agency disseminated to each police force, Region or NCA Investigations for action in the period from March 2021 to February 2022.

Rachel Maclean: Further to the Answer of 24 March 2022 to Question 143686, the National Crime Agency disseminated online child sexual abuse cases to Police Forces in England, Regional Forces and NCA teams as follows:In the period 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021, the NCA disseminated 14,260 online CSA cases to forces in England including 18 individual cases referred to two or more police forces. And a further 49 cases were disseminated to Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs). NCA investigations teams also commenced an additional 133 investigations into online child sexual abuse.In the period 1 March 2021 to 28 February 2022, the NCA disseminated 17,022 online CSA cases to forces in England including 34 individual cases referred to two or more police forces. And a further 206 cases were disseminated to ROCUs. NCA investigations teams commenced 96 new investigations into online child sexual abuse.

Fraud

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of the 4 to 4.5 per cent real terms cut to the National Crime Agency’s budget on its ability to tackle fraud.

Rachel Maclean: The Government is increasing law enforcement investigative capacity to tackle fraud. Last year we invested £63 million, and over the next three years the Spending Review has allocated a further £400 million, in tackling economic crime including fraud. This includes establishing a new fraud investigative function in the NCA, meeting a manifesto commitment to create a new national cyber crime force focused on fraud.In addition, we are creating new fraud investigation teams in Regional Organised Crime Units. These new capabilities, driven by a new tasking and coordination process run by the National Economic Crime Centre, will target the most serious and harmful frauds.Later this year, we will publish a new approach to address the threat of fraud. This will further set out how we will work with law enforcement to tackle fraud and bring offenders to justice.

Migrants: Northern Ireland

Ian Paisley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the annual cost to the public purse is for housing migrants within hotels in Northern Ireland.

Kevin Foster: The Home Office does not provide accomodation to migrants to the UK.The Home Office does though have a statutory obligation to provide accommodation and other support to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute while their application for asylum is being considered.The total expenditure on asylum is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ho-annual-reports-and-accounts.We do not publish a breakdown of costs of our accommodation & support contracts by location or property type as such detail is considered commercially sensitive.

Asylum: Housing

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which businesses are contracted to provide accommodation via the Asylum and Accommodation and Support Contracts; and in which locations they operate in.

Kevin Foster: Under the Asylum and Accommodation and Support Contracts Clearsprings Ready Homes provides accommodation in the South of England and Wales.Serco provides accommodation in the North West, Midlands and the East of England regions. Mears provides accommodation in Scotland, Northern Ireland and in the North East and Yorkshire and the Humber region.

Visas: Pakistan

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the priority visa service for all application routes remains suspended for Pakistan.

Kevin Foster: UK Visas and Immigration is currently prioritising applications made under the Ukraine Family Scheme, following its launch and in response to the humanitarian crisis arising from the invasion of Ukraine. As a result, UKVI have temporarily suspended paid for priority and super priority services for new study, work, and family applications.Customers with standard applications in study, work, and family routes may experience some delays in the processing of their application. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Shoplifting: Fines and Fixed Penalties

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to review the appropriateness of a fixed penalty notice or fine as an adequate penalty for the offence of shoplifting.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to review the (a) minimum and (b) maximum sentences for theft from a shop of goods valued at under £200.

Kit Malthouse: The Government currently has no plans to amend the penalties for shop theft.Under the Theft Act 1968, the maximum penalty for theft is seven years’ imprisonment. Fixed penalty notices are not available for shop theft, but penalty notices for disorder may be used as a penalty.Section 22A of the Magistrates Court Act 1980 provides that shoplifting, where the value of goods stolen is less than £200, is a summary offence unless the defendant elects to be tried in the Crown Court. As a summary offence, the maximum penalty is six months’ imprisonment.

Slavery

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many outstanding cases are being considered by the National Referral Mechanism as of 22 March 2022.

Rachel Maclean: The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the UK’s system for identifying and providing access to support for potential victims of modern slavery/human trafficking.The Home Office publishes quarterly statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-referral-mechanism-statistics.The average processing time and the outstanding cases referred to the National Referral Mechanism can be found in Table 17 in the Modern Slavery: National Referral Mechanism and Duty to Notify statistics UK, end of year summary, 2021.This shows the average time to Conclusive Ground decision (CG) for Conclusive Ground decisions (CG) made each quarter which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/modern-slavery-national-referral-mechanism-and-duty-to-notify-statistics-uk-end-of-year-summary-2021Table 18 shows the number of pending Reasonable Ground and Conclusive Grounds cases as of 7 January 2022. Which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/modern-slavery-national-referral-mechanism-and-duty-to-notify-statistics-uk-end-of-year-summary-2021

Slavery

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average processing time is for cases referred to the National Referral Mechanism as of 22 March 2022.

Rachel Maclean: The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the UK’s system for identifying and providing access to support for potential victims of modern slavery/human trafficking.The Home Office publishes quarterly statistics regarding the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-referral-mechanism-statistics.The average processing time and the outstanding cases referred to the National Referral Mechanism can be found in Table 17 in the Modern Slavery: National Referral Mechanism and Duty to Notify statistics UK, end of year summary, 2021.This shows the average time to Conclusive Ground decision (CG) for Conclusive Ground decisions (CG) made each quarter which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/modern-slavery-national-referral-mechanism-and-duty-to-notify-statistics-uk-end-of-year-summary-2021Table 18 shows the number of pending Reasonable Ground and Conclusive Grounds cases as of 7 January 2022. Which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/modern-slavery-national-referral-mechanism-and-duty-to-notify-statistics-uk-end-of-year-summary-2021

Animals in Science Regulation Unit

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that the Animals in Science Regulation Unit (a) strengthens its regulatory oversight responsibilities and (b) increases the number of inspections it undertakes.

Damian Hinds: The UK legal framework requires each Establishment that uses animals in science to have strong governance systems that are published in the Standard Conditions of licences found on the Regulator’s website at: www.gov.uk/guidance/research-and-testing-using-animals.The Regulator has strengthened its regulatory oversight and published its process of full system audits at: www.gov.uk/guidance/animal-research-technical-advice#process-and-standards-for-establishment-full-system-audits.The number of inspections conducted is determined on a risk basis and according to the legal framework. This includes unannounced visits to licensed establishments.

Animal Experiments

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2022 to Question 121942, on Animal Experiments, of the 65,888 botulinum tests carried out, what product was being tested in those tests; and for what reason a validated cell-based assay was not used for those tests.

Damian Hinds: Pursuant to answer 121942 the substance being tested in 65,888 procedures was Botulinum Toxin.Animal testing was authorised because there was not a validated non-animal alternative acceptable to the relevant regulator to meet these legal requirements.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Homes for Ukraine Scheme

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Homes for Ukraine scheme, what estimate his Department has made of the number of sponsors matched with a refugee in each local authority to date.

Eddie Hughes: I refer the Hon Member to the data published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ukraine-family-scheme-application-data/ukraine-family-scheme-and-ukraine-sponsorship-scheme-application-data-29-march-2022 . Further data will be published in due course.

Homes for Ukraine Scheme

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Homes for Ukraine scheme, what steps he is taking to (a) appraise visas of people who have been successfully appointed a home under that scheme and (b) provide advice to people travelling to the UK on the cheapest methods of transport.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether an enhanced DBS check is required prior to paperwork being issued for a Homes for Ukraine Visa application.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to ensure Homes for Ukraine Visa applications are not adversely affected by delays in DBS checking.

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Levelling UP, Housing and Communities, how people who have applied for the Homes for Ukraine scheme can monitor the progress of that process.

Drew Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has taken steps to ensure that information about the Homes for Ukraine programme is available in Ukrainian.

Eddie Hughes: I refer the Hon Member to the answers given to PQ UIN 145857 on 28 March 2022 and PQ UIN 144955 on 29 March 2022, which include links to published guidance and information at Gov.uk.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Advertising

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much his Department has spent on paid advertising in (a) local papers, (b) billboards and (c) online in the latest six months for which that information is available.

Eddie Hughes: Spend on campaigns is published regularly on the Gov.uk website as part of the department's transparency data.The latest published data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dluhc-departmental-spending-over-250.

Sanctions: Russia

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has plans to bring forward legislative proposals to allow the seizure of assets of sanctioned Russian individuals.

Eddie Hughes: The Government is taking action against the billions of pounds worth UK property accumulated by the Russian state-linked individuals and companies. We have already frozen the assets of those individuals on the sanctions list. The new legislation in the Economic Crime Act will mean the Government can move more quickly to impose sanctions against oligarchs already designated by our allies, as well as intensifying our sanctions enforcement. These measures form part of a wider package of legislative proposals to tackle illicit finance which will be introduced in Parliament in the coming months. We will set out details in due course.

Members: Correspondence

David Linden: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when his Department plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Glasgow East to the Minister for Afghan Resettlement, emailed on 1 February and 8 March 2022, reference DL10440.

Eddie Hughes: The letter has been transferred to the Home Office to provide a response to the Hon Member.

Homes for Ukraine Scheme

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what his Department's expected timeframe is for applicants for the Homes for Ukraine visa sponsorship scheme to (a) have their application acknowledged, (b) have their application processed and (c) be provided with a permission to travel letter.

Eddie Hughes: Phase One of the Homes for Ukraine scheme opened for applications on 18 March and is accessible via links from homesforukraine.campaign.gov.uk. All those who have submitted an application to the Home Office receive automatic confirmation by return email. The first permissions to travel under the scheme were issued by the Home Office over the weekend of 19 and 20 March. Further details on applications and processing will be set out shortly.

Planning Permission

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many planning inquiry decisions are with his Department as of 22 March 2022, by date submitted.

Stuart Andrew: As of 22 March, the following called-in applications and recovered appeals were with this Department.Case and local authorityDate receivedLAND ADJACENT TO DINNINGTON ROAD (Rotherham)06-Jan-20ELLESMERE PORT WELLSITE (Cheshire W & Chester)06-Jan-20SANDLEFORD PARK NEWBURY (West Berkshire)29-Nov-21ANDERSON SCHOOL CHIGWELL (Epping Forest)29-Nov-21 (decision issued 24-Mar-22)LAND AT SILVERTHORNE LANE (Bristol)31-Jan-22LAND S OF DUNSFOLD ROAD (Surrey CC)07-Mar-22W OF A1237 AND S OF NORTH LANE HUNTINGTON (York)17-Mar-22

Affordable Housing: Construction

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he will take to help ensure improved local authority (a) processes and (b) housebuilding in areas where social housing development is low.

Stuart Andrew: The Government has provided a range of tools to support councils to respond to the needs in their areas. This includes our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme and more freedom on how councils can spend the money they receive from Right to Buy sales. In addition, Government abolished the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing cap in 2018, allowing councils to borrow to build more homes.We also recognise the importance of councils having an effective, up-to-date plan in place to enable them to plan for meeting housing requirements, including for social housing development. The Government is therefore seeking to simplify the content of local plans and standardise the process for producing them to make plans easier to find, understand and engage with.

Local Plans: York

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he expects the publication of the new local plan for York.

Stuart Andrew: The Local Plan remains at examination and the independent Inspectors play an important role in examining plans impartially to ensure that they are legally compliant and sound.The Inspectors intend to hold further hearings commencing in April 2022 although it is not possible at this stage to say with certainty when the examination will be concluded.It remains important to ensure that progress on the York local plan is maintained and the Inspectors given the opportunity to issue their final report. The Government has set a deadline for all local planning authorities to have up-to-date local plans by the end of 2023. This will help deliver the certainty that local communities and businesses deserve.

Housing: Construction

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will provide each local authority with an assessment of the specific housing challenges in that area to help better inform decisions on local housing development programmes.

Stuart Andrew: Throughout its work the Department seeks to better understand the differing housing needs and challenges of local areas both through close engagement with local areas and monitoring relevant data, in line with our Levelling Up White Paper commitments. In keeping with our commitment to empower local leadership we will continue to give local leaders the tools and powers to respond to local needs.One of the ways in which local authorities can respond to these challenges themselves is by building homes directly. The Government has given local authorities a comprehensive range of tools to enable them to deliver council housing. This includes our £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme and the abolition of Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing cap in 2018. Local authorities have also been given more freedom on how they can spend the money they receive from Right to Buy sales on replacement homes.The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that it is for local authorities to identify the size, type and tenure of housing needed for different groups in the community and to reflect this in their local planning policies. The different groups include, but is not limited to, those who require affordable housing, families with children, older people, students, people with disabilities, service families, travellers, people who rent their homes and people wishing to commission or build their own homes.As set out in the Levelling Up White Paper, the changes we are making to the planning system will result in more communities having local plans in place, which clearly set out what is required to meet community housing needs.

Parking: Fines

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the Private Parking Code of Practice makes provision for freezing Penalty Charge Notices at the discounted rate throughout the duration of an appeal.

Neil O'Brien: Section 8.3 of the Code of Practice sets out the process for appealing private parking charges. Parking operators must provide a process to appeal against a notice of parking charge and, where the parking operator rejects an appeal, they must provide the option to either pay the parking charge or appeal the decision to the Appeals Service.The Code was laid before Parliament on 7 February 2022 and is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-parking-code-of-practice.

Employment Schemes: Finance

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment his Department has made on the effect of the potential funding gap between the end of EU funding for employment and skills (ESF) and the start of the People and Skills priority of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) on people who are furthest away from gaining employment; and what steps his Department is taking to (a) match EU funding, (b) ensure a smooth, uninterrupted transition from the end of the ESF programme to the UKSPF and (c) support local authorities in that transition.

Neil O'Brien: UK-wide, funding for the UKSPF will ramp up to £1.5 billion per year by March 2025. Alongside commitments to support regional finance funds across the UK via the British Business Bank, this upholds the UK government’s commitment to match EU structural fund receipts for each nation.Since the publication of the UKSPF Heads of Terms at Spending Review 2020, officials and Ministers have engaged widely on the UKSPF, across a wide range of sectors and organisations. We have continued to engage stakeholders to develop the full Prospectus ahead of launch further in Spring 2022.

Parking

Mr Steve Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the clamping and parking provisions in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 against the original objectives of the policy; and if he will make a statement.

Neil O'Brien: In March 2018, the then Home Secretary presented a Memorandum to the Home Affairs Committee on Post-Legislative Scrutiny of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. This included an assessment of the parking provisions contained in the Act and is available online at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/685894/cm-9579-postlegislative-scrutiny-protection-of-freedoms-2012-web.pdf.Since the introduction of keeper liability in the Act to support parking enforcement in lieu of clamping, we have seen the number of private parking charges rise significantly. In response to this, and continued concerns about the poor practice and behaviour of the private parking industry, the Government supported the Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019, which my Department is currently implementing. This will introduce regulation to the private parking industry, with the creation of a new Code of Practice that parking operators must follow if they wish to access DVLA data to enforce charges.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Public Expenditure

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will (a) list the spending programmes his Department devolves for administration to local government in England and other local spending bodies and (b) specify the value for each programme for every year for which budgets are agreed.

Kemi Badenoch: The table below sets out funding DLUHC core department devolved in 2021-22. Future years funding will be published in the usual way. The Local Government Finance Settlement can be found using this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/final-local-government-finance-settlement-england-2021-to-2022. Programme NameValue 2021-22 (£m)AFFORDABLE HOMES PROGRAMME215.0BETTER CARE FUND PROGRAMME SUPPORT0.3BICHESTER4.6BRENT CROSS29.1BROWNFIELD HOUSING FUND157.8BROWNFIELD LAND RELEASE FUND64.4BUILDING SAFETY REMEDIATION393.0CHANGING FUTURES16.0CHANGING PLACES0.3COASTAL COMMUNITIES FUND0.1COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS22.5COMMUNITY HOUSING FUND6.0COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP FUND - COF1.4COVID-19 CLINICALLY & EXTREMELY VULNERABLE61.3CUSTOM BUILD LAND DUTY0.1DATA IMPROVEMENT SHARE OUTCOME FUND4.1DIGITAL PLANNING REFORM1.9DISABLED FACILITIES GRANTS (N)573.0DOMESTIC ABUSE1.8EAST BANK51.6EBBSFLEET DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION19.0ENGLISH LANGUAGE5.2ESTATE REGEN FUND14.2FAITH, RACE AND HATE GRANT SCHEME0.4FLOOD RECOVERY FRAMEWORK SCHEMES3.7FREEPORTS3.7FUTURE HIGH STREET FUND257.5GETTING BUILDING FUND449.9GRT EDUCATION PROGRAMME1.0HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL PROGRAMME1.0HOME OF 20300.4HOMELESSNESS378.8HONG KONG BRITISH NATIONAL OVERSEAS (HKBNOS) WELCOME PROGRAMME6.5HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE FUND (CORE)37.9INFRASTRUCTURE FOR COMMONWEALTH GAMES17.7INTERFAITH NETWORK FOR THE UK0.3LEP CORE FUNDING19.1LESSONS FROM AUSCHWITZ UNIVERSITIES0.1LEVELLING UP FUND103.2LOCAL DIGITAL COLLABORATION12.4LOCAL GROWTH INVESTMENT FUNDS347.5LOCAL LAND CHARGES0.1LOCAL RESILIENCE FORUMS (LRFS)8.1MAYORAL CAPACITY FUND9.0MIDLANDS ENGINE2.5MODERN PLANNING SOFTWARE6.8NCTT0.3NEAR NEIGHBOURS1.0NEIGHBOURHOOD PLANNING7.9NEW DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONS2.1NEW HOMES BONUS622.3NORTHERN POWERHOUSE0.5OXFORD-CAMBRIDGE ARC1.0OXFORDSHIRE HOUSING40.0PARTNERSHIPS FOR PEOPLE AND PLACE0.7PFI HOUSING138.7PLANNING ADVISORY SERVICE (PAS)0.7PLANNING DELIVERY FUND5.3PLANNING REFORM2.8REDCAR AND CLEVELAND BOROUGH COUNCIL3.7REGIONAL CONTROL CENTRES4.2REMEMBERING SREBRENICA0.3REOPENING HIGH STREETS SAFELY26.8RIGHT TO BUY RECEIPTS12.3ROUGH SLEEPING325.4ROUGH SLEEPING COVID RESPONSE40.3SCHOOLS LINKING0.2SECRETARIAT FOR THE INDEPENDENT ANTISEMITISM ADVISER0.1SHIELDING SUPPORT40.8SSI STEELWORKS25.7STDC - TEESWORKS WORKS11.1STRENGTHENING FAITH INSTITUTIONS0.5STRONGER TOWNS CAPACITY FUNDING162.4SUPPORTED HOUSING OVERSIGHT PILOTS2.4SUPPORTING FAMILIES163.7TENANT FEES ACT 20190.8THAMES ESTUARY1.5TOWNS FUND0.5TRANSPORT FOR EBBSFLEET1.7UK COMMUNITY RENEWAL FUND122.5VOLUNTARY AND COMMUNITY SECTOR FUNDING FOR ROUGH SLEEPING AND HOMELESSNESS2.7VOLUNTARY RIGHT TO BUY1.4WAKING WATCH0.4WESTERN GATEWAY CORE FUNDING1.0WINDRUSH0.7WOMENS AID0.3YOUTH HOMELESSNESS0.6

Church Commissioners

Church of England: Wigan

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, with reference to the Transforming Wigan project in the Diocese of Liverpool, (a) how much Strategic Development Fund funding has been awarded in each of the seven years of the project and (b) what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of that funding.

Andrew Selous: The Transforming Wigan project was awarded £900,000 of Strategic Development Funding in 2014, which was drawn down in full by the end of 2019. As with all Strategic Development Funding projects, the project was subject to ongoing monitoring and evaluation by the Strategic Investment Board. The programme has generated significant learning, as well as generating outcomes around starting new church communities, engaging young people, developing new leaders, financial sustainability, and community support.

Church of England: Finance

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2022 to Question 141116 on Church of England: Finance, where funding has been awarded by the Church Commissioners to facilitate bringing about large parish structures, what (a) advantages and (b) disadvantages were identified during scrutiny by funding awarding panels.

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2022 to Question 141115 on Church of England: Finance, what metrics the Church of England used to measure effective ministry in dioceses planning large parish structures; and what steps the Church of England plans to take to measure effectiveness of  new ministry arrangements.

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2022 to Question 141114 on Church of England: Finance, what steps the Church of England has taken to assess the effect of removing incumbent stipendiary ministers in the Leicester, Lincoln and Liverpool dioceses on the quality of pastoral care.

Mr Ben Bradshaw: To ask the Member for South West Bedfordshire, representing the Church Commissioners, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2022 to Question 141113 on Church of England: Finance, and with reference to the Going Deeper: Church attendance statistics and clergy deployment research, published in August 2016, what financial planning assumptions have been made in the dioceses of (a) Leicester, (b) Lincoln and (c) Liverpool on parish giving over the next five years.

Andrew Selous: Funding is not given to dioceses solely for the purpose of facilitating large parish structures, but this may be a part of a wider plan that is funded by Strategic Transformation Funding, and scrutinised by the Strategic Investment Board, a subcommittee of the Archbishops’ Council.The aims of the funding are to support major change programmes that fit with a diocese’s strategic plans and make a significant difference to their mission and financial strength. Alongside this they must help develop flourishing mission and ministry over a 5-10 year period, demonstrate a sustainable financial and people plan, and design a clear pathway to a thriving and sustainable future, with a clear plan for growth.The assessment criteria are based around ‘Strategic Impact’ (e.g. is there a hope-filled vision embracing all contexts and traditions, a robust analysis, analysis between options, evidence or convincing logic in the approach, defining roles of clergy and lay ministers, alignment with evidence) and ‘Programme Delivery Confidence’ (e.g. is there a detailed financial plan, capability and capacity for change, a detailed measurement framework, and support for the wider cultural and emotional aspects). It would not be appropriate to reveal the internal conversations of the Strategic Investment Board, but all projects would be required to meet these criteria to access funding.It is for individual dioceses to make decisions about the appropriate numbers of incumbent stipendiary ministers for that diocese, and also to make financial planning assumptions appropriate to their context.

Cabinet Office

Ministerial Boxes: Social Media

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether information relating to the contents of Ministerial red box Government business has been sent via (a) WhatsApp and (b) other messaging platforms to a (i) ministerial and (ii) minister's personal phone; whether Government rules and guidance allow for red box-related information to be summarised and sent via social media platforms; what assessment he has made of the potential impact of sending such information in that manner on security; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Ellis: There are appropriate arrangements and guidance in place for the management of electronic communications to conduct Government business. Ministers will use a range of digital forms of communication for discussions in line with relevant guidance on information handling and security. The Cabinet Office has previously published guidance on how information is held for the purposes of access to information, and how formal decisions are recorded for the official record. Ministers are also given advice on the security of electronic communications. In line with practices across successive Administrations, the Government does not otherwise comment on internal security arrangements.

Veterans: Mental Health Services

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure veteran services are consistent across the UK; and if he will make an assessment of the potential for improvements in co-ordination between veteran services deliverers.

Leo Docherty: The Veterans' Strategy Action Plan 2022-24, launched in January 2022, outlines the actions the UK Government will take to support veterans and their families across the UK. Many services are devolved, but we work closely with the Devolved Administrations and service providers across the United Kingdom to learn from one another.Veterans Commissioners exist in Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as a newly appointed Veterans Commissioner for Wales, to represent the views of their veterans and signpost services in their nation. We have also appointed the Independent Veterans Adviser who reports directly to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.We will continue to engage and collaborate on delivery with local authorities, other statutory service providers, service charities, academia and private sector organisations - many of which have UK-wide reach. Moving forward, analysis of standardised census data on veterans will provide unprecedented insight into where our veterans live and allow us to better address their needs. In addition, the new Covenant duty, introduced as part of the Armed Forces Act 2021, will increase awareness of the Armed Forces Community and the Covenant at the local level, improving delivery in key areas of health, housing and education across the UK, and so provide greater consistency of support.

Treasury

Batteries and Solar Power: VAT

Alex Norris: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making combined solar and battery systems eligible for zero rated VAT.

Lucy Frazer: The Chancellor announced at Spring Statement 2022 that the VAT relief for the installation of energy saving materials (ESMs) will be expanded in Great Britain. From 1 April 2022, complex eligibility conditions to access the relief will be removed, and wind and water turbines will be reinstated as qualifying materials. Qualifying installations will also benefit from a VAT zero-rate until April 2027. Overall, this represents an additional £280 million of support for investment in ESMs over the next 5 years. This will support the uptake of products to increase the energy efficiency and decarbonisation of residential accommodation. These improvements are key to reducing gas dependency and household bills, and are also a vital part of the UK’s transition to Net Zero. Battery storage supplied as part of the installation of any qualifying material, including solar panels, will benefit from a VAT zero rate for the next 5 years. Battery storage has not been added to the list of qualifying materials itself and therefore will continue to be standard rated when installed as a standalone product.

Heating: VAT

Alex Norris: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making replacement radiators and other pipework for heat pump systems eligible for zero rated VAT.

Lucy Frazer: The Chancellor announced at Spring Statement 2022 that the VAT relief for the installation of energy saving materials (ESMs) will be expanded in Great Britain. From 1 April 2022, complex eligibility conditions to access the relief will be removed, and wind and water turbines will be reinstated as qualifying materials. Qualifying installations will also benefit from a VAT zero-rate until April 2027. Overall, this represents an additional £280 million of support for investment in ESMs over the next 5 years. This will support the uptake of products that are used to increase the energy efficiency and decarbonisation of residential accommodation. These improvements are key to reducing gas dependency and household bills and are also a vital part of the UK’s transition to Net Zero. Where the installation of new radiators and pipes are ancillary to the installation of a heat pump, these are eligible for the zero rate as part of a single supply of energy saving materials. Pipes and radiators have not been added to the list of qualifying materials themselves, and therefore will continue to be standard rated when installed as a standalone product.

Self-employment Income Support Scheme: Females

Ruth Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has undertaken any studies to determine the potential merits for female entrepreneurs of extending from two to three years the maximum time someone has been trading in order to be eligible for SEIS.

Lucy Frazer: HMRC does not require companies which receive investment through the SEIS to declare the genders of the individuals who are directors, shareholders, or founders of said companies. Therefore, HMRC does not hold any data on the number of female or male entrepreneurs which have participated in the SEIS scheme. HMRC does however hold information on the genders of the individuals who invested in SEIS qualifying companies, since this is reported on Self-Assessment returns. In 2018/19, around 1,120 SEIS investors declared themselves as female on their Self-Assessment return, compared to around 6,240 male SEIS investors. The SEIS provides a range of tax reliefs to individuals who invest in small, higher risk companies to support their growth and development. The SEIS has been designed to encourage investment in very early-stage companies that face the biggest challenges to accessing growth capital. Whilst no study on the benefits to female entrepreneurship of changes to the SEIS has been undertaken, the Government keeps the scheme, including the company age requirement, under review in order to ensure it continues to meet policy objectives in a way that is fair and effective.

Child Benefit

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of families who will see reductions in their child benefit allowance as a result of rising inflation causing wages to rise and the government freezing the higher rate tax limit.

Lucy Frazer: Child Benefit is a universal benefit payable to families as a contribution towards the costs of raising a child or children. Entitlement to Child Benefit is dependent on a person making a claim for it, and it is not means-tested.The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) is a tax charge which applies to anyone with an income of over £50,000 who gets Child Benefit, or whose partner gets it. The charge increases gradually for those with incomes between £50,000 and £60,000, and is equal to one per cent of a family’s Child Benefit for every extra £100 of income that is over £50,000 each year. Where income exceeds £60,000, the tax charge is equal to the amount payable in Child Benefit. The HICBC threshold is not linked to the Income Tax higher rate threshold.The Government set the HICBC thresholds at these levels to help target public expenditure in the way it considered most effective. As with all elements of tax policy, the Government keeps this under review as part of the annual Budget process.HM Revenue and Customs publish annual updates on the numbers of families impacted by HICBC, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-income-child-benefit-charge-data/high-income-child-benefit-charge.

Tax Avoidance

Jane Hunt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether there is a time limit on HMRC's pursuit of outstanding monies owed under the loan charge.

Lucy Frazer: Where a taxpayer cannot pay their liability in full, HMRC’s priority is to agree a manageable and sustainable Time to Pay instalment arrangement with any taxpayer who engages with them to seek a resolution. There is no maximum repayment period, and these arrangements are flexible and can be updated if the taxpayer’s circumstances change. In the small number of cases where the taxpayer has insufficient disposable income to agree a Time to Pay arrangement, HMRC will pause debt collection activity. HMRC will inform the taxpayer and aim to review each case every six to twelve months to see if the taxpayer’s circumstances have materially changed. Where a taxpayer’s circumstances materially change, HMRC will restart debt collection activity even if a number of years have passed, because there is no statute of limitations on tax debts. This ensures the tax system is fair to all taxpayers who pay what they owe when they have the ability to do so.

Self-employment Income Support Scheme: Females

Ruth Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what data his Department holds on the number of female entrepreneurs that have participated in the SEIS scheme, compared with male counterparts.

Lucy Frazer: HMRC does not require companies which receive investment through the SEIS to declare the genders of the individuals who are directors, shareholders, or founders of said companies. Therefore, HMRC does not hold any data on the number of female or male entrepreneurs which have participated in the SEIS scheme. HMRC does however hold information on the genders of the individuals who invested in SEIS qualifying companies, since this is reported on Self-Assessment returns. In 2018/19, around 1,120 SEIS investors declared themselves as female on their Self-Assessment return, compared to around 6,240 male SEIS investors. The SEIS provides a range of tax reliefs to individuals who invest in small, higher risk companies to support their growth and development. The SEIS has been designed to encourage investment in very early-stage companies that face the biggest challenges to accessing growth capital. Whilst no study on the benefits to female entrepreneurship of changes to the SEIS has been undertaken, the Government keeps the scheme, including the company age requirement, under review in order to ensure it continues to meet policy objectives in a way that is fair and effective.

Fossil Fuels: Taxation

Justin Madders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish his Department's assumptions on tax revenue from (a) VAT and (b) profits on fossil fuel sales over the next 12 months.

Lucy Frazer: The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) provides independent analysis on the UK public finances, publishing its latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) on the 23rd of March 2022. Table 3.4 in the EFO contains a comprehensive forecast of tax receipts over a 5 year period.

Consumer Goods: Repairs and Maintenance

Deidre Brock: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has been made of the potential merits of offering VAT relief on the repair of personal and household goods to support sustainability and circular economy commitments.

Lucy Frazer: The current VAT treatment of the repair of personal and household goods is subject to the standard rate of VAT at 20 per cent, as is the case for the vast majority of goods and services. Introducing any new VAT relief would come at a cost to the Exchequer, and the Government has received over £50 billion worth of requests for relief from VAT since the EU referendum. Although the Government keeps all taxes under review, introducing a new relief on the repair of personal and household goods would impose additional pressure on the public finances, to which VAT makes a significant contribution. VAT raised around £130 billion in 2019/20, and helps to fund key spending priorities, including health, education, and defence.

Sanctions: Russia

Matt Vickers: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to tackle the flow of Russian money and assets through the UK economy.

John Glen: Money obtained through corruption or criminality, including that linked to Russia is not welcome in the UK, and the Government is taking concerted action to combat the threat of illicit finance from source to destination. In recent years, the Government published a landmark public-private partnership Economic Crime Plan. The Plan outlines a comprehensive national response to economic crime and sets out 52 actions being taken by both the public and private sectors to ensure the UK cannot be abused for economic crime. The private and public sector is making measurable progress in delivering the Economic Crime Plan and are on course to deliver 49 of the 52 actions set out in the Plan. The Government is also bringing forward significant investment to tackle economic crime; the combination of last year’s Spending Review settlement and private sector contributions through the Economic Crime (AML) Levy will provide economic crime funding totalling around £400 million over the next three years. Most recently, following the Prime Minister’s announcement in February, the Government has brought forward the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act to crack down further on dirty money and corrupt elites in the UK. The Act: Introduces a “Register of Overseas Entities Beneficial Ownership of UK property” to tackle foreign criminals using UK property to launder money.Reforms our Unexplained Wealth Orders regime, to remove key barriers and help target more corrupt elites.Strengthens the Treasury’s ability to take action against sanctions breaches.  This is not all. The Government is working at pace to introduce a new dedicated Kleptocracy cell in the National Crime Agency. This will grow operational capability to combat serious and organised crime targeting corrupt elites through their hidden UK assets hidden; targeting the professional enablers of these corrupt elites; and supporting cross-government sanctions delivery and enforcement. Finally, the Government has announced published details of further upcoming legislation to clamp down on money-laundering and illicit finance. This will include fundamental reform of Companies House, enhanced information sharing powers and new powers to seize crypto assets finance.

Debts: Advisory Services

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that agencies which provide debt advice to households receive sufficient funding to meet levels of demand.

John Glen: The Government recognises the vital role that debt advice providers play in helping people in vulnerable circumstances. This is why the Government provided record levels of debt advice funding to the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) for free-to-client debt advice provision in England in 2020/21 and in this financial year. MaPS is one of the main funders for free-to-client debt advice in England, alongside other sources of funding for the sector, including from local authorities and via charitable donations. On 14 February, MaPS provided an update which confirmed funding levels for debt advice services in England over the next three financial years. Its budget for the delivery of frontline debt advice provision in England has risen to £76 million for each of the next three financial years, recognising an anticipated increase in the need for debt advice. This represents a significant increase from pre-pandemic levels of funding, which totalled £43 million in 2019/20.

Bounce Back Loan Scheme: Fraud

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason his Department did not consult the Cabinet Office fraud team regarding the potential fraud risks of the Bounce Back Loan Scheme during the scheme's establishment.

John Glen: The Treasury engaged regularly with a wide range of stakeholders across government and industry before and after the scheme launched – and received expert advice on fraud risks from PWC. Under the Scheme there were a range of checks to minimise fraud – lenders were obliged to use a reputable fraud bureau to screen applicants against potential or known fraudsters and were required to make or maintain know-your-customer and anti-money laundering checks. Lenders reported preventing over £2.2 billion worth of fraudulent applications whilst BBLS was open, and work to recover against fraudulent loans is underway through both lenders and enforcement agencies.

Bounce Back Loan Scheme: Fraud

Dame Angela Eagle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish details of the advice received by his Department from consultancy PwC regarding the key fraud risks associated with the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, as referenced in the letter dated 2 March 2022 from the Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury to the Treasury Select Committee.

John Glen: The Treasury will continue to consider what is appropriate to put into the public domain in relation to our counter fraud work noting the need to balance the public interest and ongoing work in this space.

Cost of Living: Disability

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to regularly (a) monitor and (b) publish data on the impact of inflation on disabled people.

Mr Simon Clarke: The independent Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for the calculation and publication of inflation statistics. While the ONS does not publish inflation rates faced by disabled people, in January 2022 the ONS resumed its publishing of CPI-consistent inflation estimates for UK by household groups. The ONS does consider UK households’ experience of changing prices and costs through its Household Costs Indices (HCIs). The ONS published the HCIs in 2020, which included a breakdown in household costs for disabled households between 2015 and 2019. The next update is scheduled to be published in May 2022. The Government understands the pressures people, in particular vulnerable groups are facing with the cost of living as a result of high inflation. Including the measures announced in the Spring Statement, the Government is providing support to families worth over £22 billion in 2022-23. The Government is continuing to monitor cost of living pressures and carefully considers the equalities impact of policy on those with protected characteristics, in line with both its strong commitment to promoting fairness and its legal obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty in the Equality Act 2010.

Fuels: Prices

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what further steps he plans to take to help support average to low-income households with fuel costs.

Mr Simon Clarke: The government understands that many households are facing additional pressure on their finances due to higher fuel and energy costs. At Spring Statement, the Chancellor announced significant steps that will help low-income households with the cost of living. These measures ensure work pays and help people keep more of what they earn to provide support through the challenge ahead: reducing the Universal Credit taper rate from 63% to 55%, and increasing Universal Credit work allowances by £500 a yearincreasing the National Living Wage (NLW) for workers aged 23 and over by 6.6% to £9.50 an hour from April 2022a temporary 12-month cut to fuel duty on petrol and diesel of 5p per litre, only the second time in 20 years that main rates of petrol and diesel have been cut These measures follow the £9.1 billion package announced in February 2022 to help households with rising energy bills this year, the expansion of the Warm Homes Discount to 3 million households and £3bn confirmed supported for households to improve their energy efficiency since 2021.

Capital Investment: Republic of Ireland

John Redwood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent comparative assessment he has made of business investment per capita in the (a) UK and (b) Republic of Ireland.

Helen Whately: The Chancellor has not made an assessment on this basis. However, capital investment by UK businesses averages 10% of GDP, considerably lower than the current OECD average of 14%. April 1st will mark one year since the super-deduction – the biggest two year business tax cut on modern British history – took effect. Since taking effect, business investment has increased by 9%. In his recent Mais lecture on 24th February, the Chancellor set out that the government will focus on capital as one of its priorities, cutting and reforming taxes on business investment to encourage firms to invest in productivity-enhancing assets. In Spring Statement 2022, the government recognised that the best way to support households in the long run is through encouraging strong and sustainable growth across the UK, by promoting investment and innovation; and then sharing more of the proceeds of growth by reducing the tax burden for working people.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Public Libraries

Mr Jonathan Lord: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support local libraries.

Nigel Huddleston: On 12 March HM Government announced an investment of £5 million in 25 library services through the Libraries Improvement Fund (LIF) to upgrade their buildings and technology, and to enable them to be resilient and equipped to meet the needs of local communities. Details of the successful projects are published on the Arts Council England website.Through the Cultural Investment Fund the Government will invest up to a further £128.4 million of capital investment in innovative cultural and creative projects, libraries, and museums across the country over the Spending Review period (22/23 - 24/25).

Euro 2028

John Lamont: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Sport, what engagement her Department has had with the national football associations across the UK regarding a joint bid for the UEFA European Championships in 2028.

Nigel Huddleston: On Wednesday 23 March 2022, the five football associations of the UK and Ireland submitted a joint expression of interest to host the UEFA European Championships 2028. The UK Government supported this step and we believe that hosting EURO 2028 would be a fantastic opportunity for the whole of the UK and Ireland.My officials have worked closely alongside the football associations, the government of Ireland and the Devolved Administrations throughout this process, and we will continue to engage closely as we develop our potential bid.

Sports: Females

Jeff Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when the Government plans to respond to the re-consultation on adding women's sporting events to the listed events regime, which ended on 16 February 2022.

Nigel Huddleston: I am absolutely committed to supporting women's sport at every opportunity including raising its visibility in the media.Earlier this year I wrote to sport rights holders and broadcasters about adding further women’s sports events to the listed events regime. I will be announcing the outcome of this re-consultation shortly.

Cultural Heritage

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions her Department has had with the devolved Administrations to promote and enhance access to historical and heritage assets across the UK.

Nigel Huddleston: The UK Government is committed to promoting and enhancing access to historical and heritage assets across the UK. My Department has regular discussions at an official and ministerial level with the devolved administrations and other bodies and organisations across the UK about heritage matters.In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, heritage policy is devolved however the DA’s work closely with the UK Government on matters of mutual interest and on international issues relating to heritage. We work closely with the devolved administrations on stewardship of our UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the recent addition of Gracehill Moravian Church in County Antrim to the UK's tentative list.

Tourism

Mr Jonathan Lord: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support the tourism industry throughout the UK.

Nigel Huddleston: Our Tourism Recovery Plan (TRP) sets out an ambition to recover domestic tourism to pre pandemic levels of 99m overnight trips and spend of £19 billion by the end of 2022. We have been committed to supporting the sector to remain resilient and have already provided £37 billion to the tourism, leisure and hospitality sectors in the form of grants, loans and tax breaks.The TRP also announced plans for a new rail pass, which we hope to launch this year, to help make it easier and more sustainable for domestic tourists to get around Scotland, England, and Wales.The National Lottery Days Out Campaign is still running until 31 March, it offers people the chance to redeem a lottery ticket for a £25 voucher to be used in a variety of attractions around the UK, to support domestic tourism.On 9 February, VisitBritain launched its £10 million international GREAT Britain marketing campaign ‘Welcome to Another Side of Britain’. The aim is to put Britain’s cities in the spotlight who have suffered most from the lack of international visitors during the pandemic. It will also capture the major events this year including HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and ‘Unboxed,’ the UK-wide celebration of creativity. VisitBritain is also working with partners including British Airways in the USA and TripAdvisor in Europe to extend the campaign’s reach and drive bookings.Related to the domestic campaign, in February the second round of the Escape the Everyday DMO Recovery Marketing Fund was launched. It provides the opportunity for English DMOs to apply for grant funding to deliver local marketing activities aligned to, and following on from, this national campaign.In early March, VisitBritain welcomed 50 international travel trade buyers for a series of educational visits across Britain. Buyers from the UK’s three largest inbound tourism markets, the USA, France and Germany.VisitBritain’s flagship global travel trade event ExploreGB is currently running virtually (21-25 March). ExploreGB Virtual is bringing together more than 330 global buyers to connect online and do business with 370 tourism industry suppliers and destinations from across the UK. More than 10,000 pre-scheduled one-to-one virtual business meetings will take place during the event.

Leisure: Disability

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure that swimming pools and leisure facilities have adequate disabled access.

Nigel Huddleston: The government recognises there are barriers which exist and prevent some people from participating in sport and physical activity, including access to facilities. We want to continue to do all that we can to tackle these.We continue to work with our arm’s length bodies, Sport England and UK Sport, and sector partners to encourage sport bodies to make sport and facilities more accessible. Sport England's new ten year strategy 'Uniting the Movement' reinforces their commitment to increasing participation in sport and physical activity for those from under-represented groups, including disabled people.Sport England is also developing a new plan called ‘Accessible and Inclusive Sports Facilities’ and that will be published this year.

Tourism

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to promote staycations to support the tourism sector.

Nigel Huddleston: The government is committed to supporting the recovery of the UK’s tourism industry and promoting domestic tourism. The Tourism Recovery Plan, published in June 2021, sets out a comprehensive framework for rebuilding the sector.The plan set out ambitious and stretching targets, which were at least a year faster than independent forecast predictions, in which to recover domestic tourism to pre pandemic levels. A target of 99 million overnight trips and spend of £19 billion by the end of 2022 was set, as well as aiming to return inbound visitor volume to return to 41 million and £28 billion spend by the end of 2023.The TRP also announced plans for a new rail pass, which we hope to launch this year, to help make it easier and more sustainable for domestic tourists to get around Scotland, England, and Wales.The National Lottery Days Out Campaign offers people the chance to redeem a lottery ticket for a £25 voucher for attractions around the whole of the UK. The campaign is designed to support domestic tourism by stimulating off-season demand from domestic day trips. As of 21 March, 187,117 vouchers have been redeemed. This campaign ends on 31 March.2022 also promises a host of unmissable events, including Her Majesty’s Jubilee, with a programme of events over the extended Jubilee Bank holiday; Unboxed, which aims to engage millions of people through in person and digital events; as well as the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, which will drive visitors to the region.

Youth Services: Harrow West

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the claim by the YMCA that, adjusted to real terms, Harrow West has experienced a decrease in funding for youth services of 61 per cent in the last decade; and if she will make a statement.

Nigel Huddleston: Local Authorities have a statutory duty to allocate funding to youth services in line with local need. This is funded from the Local Government settlement, which was over £12 billion this year.The government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people. The government is investing £560 million over the next 3 years in a new National Youth Guarantee, so that by 2025 every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer.

Youth Services: North West

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to improve the provision of youth services in (a) St Helens North constituency, (b) Liverpool City Region and (c) the North West.

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Youth Investment Fund, what proportion of phase 1 funding went to successful applicants located in (a) St Helens Metropolitan Borough, (b) Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and (c) the North West.

Nigel Huddleston: Local Authorities have a statutory duty to allocate funding to youth services in line with local need. This is funded from the Local Government settlement, which was over £12 billion this year.The government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities play in improving the life chances and wellbeing of young people and is investing £560 million over the next 3 years in a new National Youth Guarantee, so that by 2025 every young person will have access to regular clubs and activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer.Phase 1 of the Youth Investment Fund is providing funding for local youth organisations in 45 local authorities and around 600 district wards in levelling up priority areas in parts of England, including eligible areas in the North West. Funding for Phase 1 of the Youth Investment Fund has now been allocated to successful applicants by BBC Children in Need, the Intermediary Grant Maker. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport plans to announce and publish a list of successful recipients of the grant on gov.uk in due course.

Broadband: Rural Areas

Paul Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that internet speeds in rural homes matches those in urban areas.

Julia Lopez: The Government is determined to deliver great connectivity to every community in the UK and is working to close the digital divide between rural, suburban, and urban areas. We are creating a competition-friendly environment to promote deployment in areas where this is commercially viable and we are investing £5 billion through Project Gigabit to support roll-out in less commercial locations, including rural areas. In three years national coverage has rocketed from six per cent to over 66 per cent and we have already upgraded 600,000 premises in hard-to-reach areas.Our Project Gigabit procurements are prioritising delivery to rural, hard-to-reach premises and to those with the lowest broadband speeds. Broadband providers have so far been invited to bid for contracts worth up to £292 million to upgrade up to 187,000 premises across Cumbria, Durham, Northumberland, Cambridgeshire, North Dorset and West Cornwall - with initial deployment expected to commence later this year.As part of Project Gigabit the government is also investing up to £210 million in the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme to support rural communities with the cost of installing new gigabit-capable connections. The scheme provides a micro-grant of up to £1,500 for residents and up to £3,500 for businesses towards the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband. Further information is available on the gigabit voucher website including eligibility criteria and how to apply for the scheme.

Allwyn Entertainment: National Lottery

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish the (a) dates, (b) meeting minutes and (c) attendees of all meetings that Ministers and officials in her Department have attended in the last 12 months with the preferred National Lottery provider, Allwyn.

Chris Philp: DCMS offered official-level meetings to all final-stage applicants to the 4th National Lottery licence competition to give an overview of the government's vision for the Gambling and National Lottery sectors. On 23 November 2020, DCMS's Director for Sport, Gambling and Ceremonials and Deputy Director for Gambling and Lotteries met representatives of Sazka (now Allwyn Entertainment Ltd). Ministers did not meet with Allwyn in respect of the competition to operate the 4th National Lottery licence.

Allwyn Entertainment: National Lottery

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish her Department's correspondence with the Gambling Commission with reference to their decision to appoint Allwyn, a company with reported links to the Russian regime, as the preferred organisation to run the next licence for the National Lottery.

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish the enquiries her Department are making to ensure that the preferred organisation to run the next National Lottery licence, Allwyn, do not have financial, or political ties to the current Russian regime.

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on what date the provisional new organisation to take over the National Lottery, Allwyn, will begin the UK secure vetting process; how long that process will take; and whether that process includes discussions with UK and foreign security and police services.

Alex Davies-Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Gambling Commission took to vet national lottery license applicants during the national lottery license application process, including whether they communicated with and sought assurances from UK and other financial regulators, and UK and other security and police services.

Chris Philp: The competition to operate the 4th National Lottery licence is run by the Gambling Commission. In accordance with the relevant legislation, the decision to appoint Allwyn as the preferred bidder was made by the Commission’s Board. DCMS and Ministers have not been involved in the decision making process, nor have they discussed or corresponded with the Commission about who the licence should be awarded to.We do not have any plans to publish correspondence between the Department and the Gambling Commission.It is the Gambling Commission’s responsibility to regulate the National Lottery and appoint a licensee that will operate the National Lottery with all due propriety. To satisfy this duty, fit and proper checks were carried out during the competition and will be maintained throughout the transition and licence term. These checks consider the identity, integrity, criminality and financial integrity of those operating or benefitting from the National Lottery (or applying to do so) and include enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks. Where an individual was based overseas, checks were carried out against information provided by the relevant police report. In addition, the Commission reviewed the funding structures for all applicants, including Allwyn, and is satisfied that no sanctioned entities are involved in funding the proposed licensee.Standard vetting checks (BPSS level - Baseline Personnel Security Standard) are being carried out by UK Security Vetting on key people connected with the preferred applicant’s proposal. These include Qualifying Direct Shareholders, which is any person that holds at least 5% interest in the Licensee. This vetting process has already started and is expected to take 8 – 10 weeks to complete. Full details of what is included in a BPSS level check is outlined on the UKSV website.

House of Commons Commission

House of Commons: Taxis

Ian Lavery: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, whether or not late night and early shift workers are offered free transportation home from Parliament.

Sir Charles Walker: The late night transport service is a centrally managed service provided for eligible staff in all Teams of the House. It provides transport from the Palace of Westminster to the home of a member of staff using shared taxis. The House will cover the cost of journeys home within a 25-mile radius of the Palace of Westminster.The House provides the service for staff who finish late night duties at predictable times after the time the House rises and at unpredictable times (where workload determines finish times).Staff on official duty or required to work after 11.00 pm are eligible to use the late night transport service.

Women and Equalities

Question

Hannah Bardell: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government is taking to support women in the workplace.

Chloe Smith: To support women in the workplace, we will: extend redundancy protections for women after they return from maternity leave; introduce neonatal leave and pay; and introduce one week of unpaid carer’s leave. We have also recently consulted on measures to increase the availability of flexible working – and look forward to publishing our response to that in due course.

Question

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government is taking to tackle the rise in the prevalence of spiking.

Rachel Maclean: This is an issue which the government takes very seriously. The public have a right to feel safe on the streets and they expect the government, law enforcement, and the private sector to ensure this.Action which the Government is already taking on spiking includes:Supporting the rollout of pilot initiatives to improve the safety of women in public spaces, including in the night-time economy.Working with the police to better understand the nature of spiking. This will inform a statutory report on the nature and prevalence of spiking. The report is due 12 months from the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill receiving Royal Assent.The Home Office is also considering the case for a criminal offence to target spiking directly. We will not hesitate to legislate if necessary.